Parental satisfaction with quality of health care of children with sickle cell disease at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City

Abstract

Background: Parents play a major role in determining where and when to access care for their children. Assessing parental satisfaction with the health system will be a pointer to attitude towards health institutions compliance with treatment and achievement of better treatment outcome, especially in the care of children with chronic diseases such as sickle cell disease (SCD). This study determined parental satisfaction with quality of health care of their children with SCD at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City.
Methods: The study was a descriptive survey. A structured questionnaire with a five point Likert scale was used for data collection from parents of children with SCD. A mean score of 3.0 and above was used as an acceptable response for high level of satisfaction. The maximum allowable score was 5.
Results: Parents of children with SCD had a good perception of the health facility with a high mean score of 4.35 ± 0.43. Parental satisfaction was high (mean score ranged from 3.49 ± 0.68 to 4.31 ± 0.50) across the entire construct. The highest and lowest levels of satisfaction was found in the domain “visit to the doctors (mean score was 4.31 ± 0.50) and “staff communication” (mean score 3.49 ± 0.68) respectively. Socio-demographic and economic factors did not significantly affect parental satisfaction with quality of health care.
Conclusion: Parental satisfaction with quality of health care was high in this study. Areas with least level of satisfaction such as “communication with staff” and “care from the laboratory” should be reviewed for improvement.