Development of a universal short patient satisfaction questionnaire on the basis of SERVQUAL: Psychometric analyses with data of diabetes and stroke patients from six different European countries

Uwe Konerding; Tom Bowen; Sylvia G Elkhuizen; Raquel Faubel; Paul Forte; Eleftheria Karampli; Tomi Malmström; Elpida Pavi; Paulus Torkki

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197924

Development of a universal short patient satisfaction questionnaire on the basis of SERVQUAL: Psychometric analyses with data of diabetes and stroke patients from six different European countries

PLoS One. 2019 Oct 17;14(10):e0197924. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197924. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Uwe Konerding^{1

2}, Tom Bowen³, Sylvia G Elkhuizen⁴, Raquel Faubel^{5

6}, Paul Forte³, Eleftheria Karampli⁷, Tomi Malmström⁸, Elpida Pavi⁷, Paulus Torkki^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany.
² Trimberg Research Academy, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany.
³ The Balance of Care Group, London, England, United Kingdom.
⁴ Institute of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Physiotherapy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
⁶ Joint Research Unit in Biomedical Engineering (IIS La Fe- Universitat Politècnica de València), Valencia, Spain.
⁷ Department of Public Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.
⁸ Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.
⁹ Department of Public Health, Helsinki University, Helsinki, Finland.

Abstract

Objective: A short questionnaire which can be applied for assessing patient satisfaction in different contexts and different countries is to be developed.

Methods: Six items addressing tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and communication were analysed. The first five items stem from SERVQUAL (SERVice QUALity), the last stems from the discussion about SERVQUAL. The analyses were performed with data from 12 surveys conducted in six different countries (England, Finland, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain) covering two different conditions (type 2 diabetes, stroke). Sample sizes for included participants are 247 in England, 160 in Finland, 231 in Germany, 152 in Greece, 316 in the Netherlands and 96 in Spain for the diabetes surveys; and 101 in England, 139 in Finland, 107 in Germany, 58 in Greece, 185 in the Netherlands, and 92 in Spain for the stroke surveys. The items were tested by (1) bivariate correlations between the items and an item addressing 'general satisfaction', (2) multivariate regression analyses with 'general satisfaction' as criterion and the items as predictors, and (3) bivariate correlations between sum scores and 'general satisfaction'.

Results: The correlations with 'general satisfaction' are 0.48 for tangibles, 0.56 for reliability, 0.58 for responsiveness, 0.47 for assurance, 0.53 for empathy, and 0.56 for communication. In the multivariate regression analysis, the regression coefficient for assurance is significantly negative while all other regression coefficients are significantly positive. In a multivariate regression analysis without the item 'assurance' all regression coefficients are positive. The correlation between the sum score and 'general satisfaction' is 0.608 for all six items and 0.618 for the finally remaining five items. The country specific results are similar.

Conclusions: The five items which remain after removing 'assurance', i.e. the SERVQUAL-MOD-5, constitute a short patient satisfaction index which can usefully be applied for different medical conditions and in different countries.

Publication types

Clinical Trial
Multicenter Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / psychology*
Europe
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Patient Satisfaction*
Psychometrics
Stroke / psychology*
Surveys and Questionnaires*

Grants and funding

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 241741. The Balance of Care Group is no commercial affiliation. It is an association of two freelance consultants. These two freelance consultants were TB and PF and both were funded by the European Union. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.