An ordinal evaluation of the consumer participation process in community health programs

This study applied an analytical technique used in the social sciences to explore conceptual approaches to an understanding of the consumer participation process in health care decision making. Consumers of health services from three community health centers were interviewed to ascertain their opinions, attitudes, and perceived knowledge of the consumer participation process associated with the three health centers in the respective communities. A consumer knowledge index (CKI) was constructed, based on the interclass association between selected survey response items considered representative of the consumers' knowledge of the consumer participation process. Based on a general test of selected hypotheses using the gamma statistic, consumers with a high ranking on CKI tended to be somewhat more satisfied with selected aspects of the health centers and reported more preventive health practices. Implications of these findings and the conceptual approach for promoting and evaluating consumer participation in health planning councils are discussed.