Patients' Dignity and Its Relationship with Contextual Variables: A Cross-Sectional Study

Dignity is considered as fundamental human needs and recognized as one of the central concepts in nursing science. The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which patients' dignity is respected and to evalutae its relationship with contextual variables. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 256 hospitalized patients in the two teaching hospitals affiliated to Zanjan University of medical sciences, Iran. Data were collected by a questionnaire consist of two sections: (a) demographic characteristics, and (b) patient dignity including 32 questions. Data were analyzed by SPSS (ver.13) software using independent t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation. The result showed that the mean (standard deviation) of total score of patient's dignity was 108.17 (25.28). According to the result, the majority of the respondents (76.2%) were not aware of patient's rights. There was a significant difference in mean scores of total dignity between single and married persons, living in city or village, and hospitalization in Moosavi and Valiasr hospital. Health care systems should take the provision of the patients' dignity into account through using a comprehensive educational program for informing of patient, family members, and health professionals about patients' dignity.