ArticleInternational journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care2018
Comparison of objective measures and patients' perceptions of quality of services in government health facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Article in International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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2 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Role of Religious Involvement as a Moderator of Perceived Health and Somatic Anxiety Among Hispanic Seventh-Day Adventists During COVID-19.Journal of religion and health · 2025Article
- Primary health care performance: a scoping review of the current state of measurement in Africa.BMJ global health · 2019Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
objectiveExamine the relationship between patients' perceptions of quality and the objective level of quality at government health facilities, and determine whether the pre-existing attitudes and beliefs of patients regarding health services interfere with their ability to accurately assess quality of care.
designCross-sectional, visit-level analysis.
settingThree regions (Nord-Ubangi, Kasai/Kasai-Central and Maniema/Tshopo) of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
participantsData related to the inpatient and outpatient visits to government health facilities made by all household members who were included in the survey was used for the analysis. Data were collected from patients and the facilities they visited.
main outcome measuresPatients' perceptions of the level of quality related to availability of drugs and equipment; patient-centeredness and safety serve compared with objective measures of quality.
resultsObjective measures and patient perceptions of the drug supply were positively associated (β = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.03, 0.28) and of safety were negatively associated (β = -0.12, 95% CI = -0.23, -0.01). Several environmental factors including facility type, region and rural/peri-urban setting were found to be significantly associated with respondents' perceptions of quality across multiple outcomes.
conclusionsOverall, patients are not particularly accurate in their assessments of quality because their perceptions are impacted by their expectations and prior experience. Future research should examine whether improving patients' knowledge of what they should expect from health services, and the transparency of the facility's quality data can be a strategy for improving the accuracy of patients' assessments of the quality of the health services, particularly in low-resourced settings.
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