Clients’ satisfaction with primary health care in Tehran: A cross-sectional study on Iranian Health Centers

BACKGROUND Primary health care system is the basic core of public service provision in Iran. This study aimed to assess clients' satisfaction with primary health care in Tehran, the capital of Iran, as a metropolitan. METHODS Through a cross-sectional study in 2009-10, four urban primary health care clinics were selected through stratified random sampling. Four hundred participants were interviewed in the selected clinics about their satisfaction with the primary health care services and setting. Six domains of satisfaction including accessibility to services, continuity of care, humaneness of staff, comprehensiveness of care, provision of health education and effectiveness of services were calculated from selected variables. The descriptive statistics, chi-square and t-tests were used when appropriate. RESULTS The mean age of users of health services was 31.3 years (SD=9.6). Thirteen percent of participants were male. The most common reasons for asking health services reported as vaccination, family planning and children care. Overall, primary health care services were suitable for eighty percent of the participants. The mean and standard deviation for Access to services was 2.11 (SD=3.44), continuity of care was -0.35 (SD=3.49), humanness of staff was 3.93 (SD=5.70), comprehensiveness of care was -0.53 (SD=3.66), provision of health educational materials was -1.45 (SD=3.64) and effectiveness of services was 4.30 (SD=7.47). CONCLUSIONS Primary health care is a comprehensive and suitable strategy to provide health services in public health. Package of services in primary health care may affect clients' satisfaction. Using family doctors may improve the indices.