A study presented at the annual meeting of the Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS; 4–6 December, Orlando, USA) suggests that patient satisfaction after spinal care could be linked to patient age, education level and smoking status.
Jesse E Bible, Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, USA, told delegates that patients who were younger, with a lower level of education or who were active smokers reported lower overall satisfaction scores during spine clinic.
Bible and colleagues’ study used a standardised 25-point patient satisfaction survey utilising a 10-point Likert scale. Patients rated their satisfaction with preprovider, provider and post-provider. The authors focused on three main outcomes of satisfaction: provider satisfaction, visit satisfaction and quality of care. Of the 493 patients that the authors attempted to contact, 40% agreed to participate.
The results showed that younger patients (p≤0.009), patients with a lower level of formal education (p<0.001) and active smokers (p≤0.015) reported lower scores across all three outcomes of satisfaction. The study results also found that male patients had a lower overall satisfaction score (p=0.029).
As well as these patient characteristics, Bible and colleagues also found that type of insurance that the patient had affected satisfaction scores. Those with worker compensation were the least satisfied patients (provider score: 7.8±1.9) while those with Medicare insurance were the most satisfied (9.3±1.5).
