Relationship between anxiety level of patients and their satisfaction with different aspects of healthcare.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the possible association between the anxiety level of patients and their satisfaction with different aspects of healthcare. METHOD: This analytical cross-sectional study included 301 patients undergoing scheduled trauma surgery from October 2004 to May 2005 at the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital in Granada (Spain). They completed a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire before their discharge and, at 15 days after discharge, they responded to an ad hoc questionnaire comprising three items (satisfaction with information received, privacy and comfort of the setting, and friendliness of healthcare professionals), and were scored on an interviewer-administered Zung anxiety scale. Descriptive analysis and unadjusted logistic regression were performed for each factor, followed by multivariate logistic regression to model the association between satisfaction and anxiety with study of confounding variables. RESULTS: For each higher point in the Zung test, patients had a 4% higher risk of feeling dissatisfied with the information received, an 8% higher risk of dissatisfaction with the hospital setting and a 6% higher risk of dissatisfaction with the friendliness of healthcare personnel. CONCLUSION: A higher anxiety level in the patient was associated with greater dissatisfaction with the three healthcare aspects studied.