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Determinants of patient satisfaction with cancer care delivered by the Danish healthcare system
Author(s) -
Heerdegen Anne Christine Stender,
Petersen Gitte Stentebjerg,
Jervelund Signe Smith
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/cncr.30673
Subject(s) - medicine , health care , logistic regression , cancer , patient satisfaction , comorbidity , odds , danish , population , ordered logit , family medicine , nursing , environmental health , linguistics , philosophy , machine learning , computer science , economics , economic growth
BACKGROUND Patient‐reported quality of care, which is often measured by patients' overall rating of care, is gaining more attention within the field of oncology. The aim of this study was to examine factors that determine adult cancer patients' overall rating of prediagnosis care (PDC) and care provided during treatment (CDT). METHODS Data were collected from 2 recurrent nationwide surveys among adult cancer patients in Denmark in 2010 and 2012. Analyses regarding PDC were based on the 2010 study population (n = 3681), and CDT analyses were based on the 2012 follow‐up population (n = 2315). Multivariable logistic regression models were applied. RESULTS Overall, 55.1% of patients reported excellent PDC and 61.9% reported excellent CDT. The odds of rating PDC and CDT as excellent differed significantly according to sex, age, and cancer diagnosis. Furthermore, the extent of supportive relatives, comorbidity, self‐reported health, and region of treatment significantly determined ratings of CDT. Patients who reported negative experiences related to waiting time, information, coordination, and continuity of care during PDC and CDT, respectively, were significantly less likely overall to rate their care as excellent. The final regression models for PDC and CDT explained 38.2% and 30.6%, respectively, of the variance in the overall rating. CONCLUSION Learning how patient characteristics influence the overall rating of care can enable health care providers to accommodate vulnerable patient groups. Identification of health care aspects that are independently associated with the overall rating of care may enable targeted efforts when planning and prioritizing initiatives aimed at improving the patient‐experienced quality of care. Cancer 2017;123:2918–26. © 2017 American Cancer Society .