Determinants of Patient Satisfaction in Celiac Disease Care

There are little data examining patient satisfaction with celiac disease (CD) care. We sought to assess how satisfied patients are with their CD care, and to determine the influencing factors.

We distributed an online questionnaire to adults receiving programmatic updates from a CD referral center, querying aspects of CD care and using disease-specific validated instruments to measure quality of life and dietary adherence. The univariable and multivariable analyses were performed using satisfaction as a binary outcome comparing grouped "satisfied" and "very satisfied" respondents to "neutral," "dissatisfied," and "very dissatisfied" respondents.

Three hundred eighty-seven (22%) individuals completed the survey, and 229 met the inclusion criteria of biopsy-proven CD. Seventy-nine individuals (34.5%) reported being "very satisfied" with their CD care, 82 (35.8%) "satisfied," 46 (20.1%) "neutral," 14 (6.1%) "dissatisfied," and 8 (3.5%) "very dissatisfied." On multivariable analysis, reporting that physicians spend ample time managing CD needs (P=0.013), and having CD-antibody levels checked yearly (P=0.003), were positive predictors of patient satisfaction. Factors that were not correlated with patient satisfaction included symptom severity (P=0.268), quality of life (P=0.13), and following with a CD specialist (P=0.139).

The majority of patients we surveyed were satisfied with their CD care. We found that patients report higher satisfaction when they feel physicians spend time caring for their CD needs and when they receive annual CD-antibody testing. On the basis of our study, these factors are more important than disease severity, seeing a CD specialist, and quality of life in determining patient satisfaction with CD care.