Abstract

INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS ON SATISFACTION WITH COMMUNITY PHARMACY SERVICES IN ABUJA, NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Dr. Paul Otor Onah*, Siyaka Abdul Lateef and Ahmed Abdulmalik

ABSTRACT

Title: Influence of demographic factors on satisfaction with community pharmacy services in Abuja, North central Nigeria. Introduction: Satisfaction with health services has gained prominence in recent years and recent studies have established a direct relationship between satisfaction and patient cooperation with therapy. While some studies reported high level of satisfaction others have mixed results. Some attributes reported to influence satisfaction have poor correlation with demographic variables. Demographic variables such as age, educational status and gender have been reported to influence satisfaction, though there have been inconsistencies in conclusions. Community pharmacies in Nigeria are the most accessible source of drugs to the population, so satisfaction with service delivery is important and can be used as a quality assessment indicator. Objectives: To identify available community pharmacy services, asses the level of patient satisfaction and determine influence of demographic variables on satisfaction. Methods: This was a cross sectional survey using SERPERF instrument. A total of 385 respondents spread over 33 community pharmacies were involved in the study. Respondents were selected by simple random sampling and asked to tick the option on a five point Likert scale that best reflect their opinion. Data analysis: The data were entered in SPSS 20 for descriptive and inferential analysis. Analysis was done using one way Anova and student’s t test. Factor analysis using Varimax rotation with KMO normalization was carried out and items with factor loading ≥ 0.4 were selected for further analysis. Results/ Discussion: Satisfaction level varied widely between the items, however when 50% score was considered only 6 out of 22 items had appreciable satisfaction. Satisfaction was influenced by age, educational status and gender (P < 0.001), respondents above 40 years of age, graduates and females have low level of satisfaction pharmacy services. This result suggests that there is increasing demand for quality services which is not being met with the current operational structure of community pharmacies. Conclusion: The level of satisfaction with community pharmacy services is low and there is need to reorganize service administration to deliver quality services to patients.

Keywords: Satisfaction, pharmacy services, Demographic factors, Quality.