Chinedu Ibeh*, Ogaji DS and Babatunde O
Introduction: Patients’ expectations are their presumptions of what should occur in healthcare systems before an encounter. The chronicity of HIV/AIDS and the requirement of periodic visits to health facilities for care makes it imperative to determine the expectations of these patients for their healthcare. This study determined patients’ expectations of patients on antiretroviral treatment in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design using systematic sampling technique with the multi dimensional “ServQual expectation” scale for data collection. Descriptive data analysis was conducted for background characteristics and Mean Expectation Scores (MES) while inferential analysis was conducted using linear regression analysis to identify potential factors related to patients' expectation
Results: The mean age of the 337 respondents was 39.6 ± 11.3 years and a majority were females (73.6%), married (62.9%) and had a post primary level of education (82.4%). The overall MES is 90.2% ± 4.6% while the MES for the four domains ranges from 89.2 ± 4.6 for empathy to 91.0% ± 4.6% for the assurance domain. The mean expectations scores for the items range from 87.9% ± 20.5% for "individualised medical attention" to 95.8% ± 11.0% for "adequate staff support". Religion was the only factor with a statistically significant relationship with the overall mean expectation, responsiveness, assurance and empathy domains.
Conclusion: The reported high level of expectation for service quality across all the domains, has implications for policy, HIV care and future research.
Published Date: 2023-08-28; Received Date: 2023-01-31
