Satisfaction with healthcare services among Spanish people with disabilities

Several studies show the relationship between patient satisfaction and quality of health services and also between disabling conditions and healthcare access, but none sufficiently analyze the factors that contribute to satisfaction among patients with disabilities.

The primary aim of this paper is to quantify the impact of social factors, perceived health status and access on satisfaction with healthcare services among Spanish people with disabilities.

This paper uses data from the European Health Survey 2009 to construct latent variables related to satisfaction, use and health status among Spanish patients with disabilities. Next, partial least squares path modeling is used for quantifying the effects of certain social factors, service use, and health status on patient satisfaction with received healthcare services.

Satisfaction with healthcare services among people with disabilities is correlated (Nagelkerke R(2) of 0.175) with certain demographic factors (age, gender and town size), assistance support and patient use of these services. Education level and income were not found to have significant effects.

People with disabilities generally show a high level of satisfaction with healthcare services, influenced by a positive valuation of the differentiated use given their specific care needs. Subjective aspects of care have a notable influence, linked with the perception of the person's own state of health and emotional status, on these positive valuations; patients' individual perceptions can reduce care needs and the use patients make of healthcare services and tend to increase their level of satisfaction with these services when they do seek them.