The impact of family doctor contract services on the utilization of and satisfaction with primary health care among Chinese residents: A cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Family doctor contract service (FDCS) is a vital part of China's primary health care system. This study aims to explore whether contracting with FDCS affects residents' utilization of and satisfaction with primary health care. Methods: A structured questionnaire was employed to collect data in January 2022. The questionnaire mainly included the following three parts: the social-demographic characteristics, health-related information, and utilization of and satisfaction with primary health care. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to adjust for social-demographic differences between participants who contracted with a family doctor and those who did not. For the matched population, we used the Chi-square test to examine the differences in the utilization of and satisfaction with primary health care between contracted and non-contracted participants. Moreover, multiple logistic regression and linear regression were used to explore the influencing factors of the utilization of and satisfaction with primary health care. Results: A total of 10,850 people were investigated and 10,419 participants were incorporated into the data analysis. After matching, there were no significant differences in most of the matching variables between the contracted and non-contracted groups ( Conclusion: The contracted people were more likely to utilize and be satisfied with primary health care than the non-contracted. In addition, the contracted people tended to use primary health care because of the quality of services rather than because of the close distance or short waiting time. Therefore, it is important to further promote the high quality of FDCS to ensure residents' sense of gain and improve their satisfaction.