Ethnic Differences in Satisfaction with Mental Health Services Among Psychiatry Patients

Objective: The main aim of the study was to examine the impact of patients’ ethnic diversity on the patient satisfaction level to psychiatry care and explores the satisfaction domains with mental health care. Design: This is a prospective cross sectional study. Setting: Psychiatry department of the Hamad Medical Corporation. Subjects: The study sample was Qatari and other Arab nationals aged 18 to 65 years who visited the psychiatry department during the study period; April 2009 to August 2009. A total of 1300 adult patients were approached and 1054 (81.1%) expressed their consent to participate in this study. Method: A standard forward-backward procedure was applied to translate the English version of the PDRQ to Arabic. PDRQ was administered by pre-trained nurses among the psychiatry patients. The main outcome measures of the study were 13-item patient doctor relationship questionnaire (PDRQ) score and other 11 items assessing what patients need from psychiatrists. Also, Socio-demographic data of the patients was collected. Results: Of the studied patients, there were 479 Qataris (45.4%) and 575 other Arabs (54.6%). There was a significant differences found between Qatari and Arab expatriate patients in marital status (p=0.036), level of education (p<0.001), occupation (p<0.001), household income (p<0.001), number of rooms in the house (p<0.001) and people living in the house (p<0.001). Arab expatriate patients (480;55.9%) were more satisfied with psychiatry care than Qatari patients (378;44.1%) especially in the age group (18-34) years of both the ethnic groups (164;43.4% vs 214;44.6%). Overall patient satisfaction level was significantly higher in literate Arab patients with secondary and university degree (333;69.3%), while it was lower in Qataris (185;49%). Satisfaction score was almost the same between Qatari and Arab expatriate patients with no significant difference. But satisfaction score was significantly higher in Spanish population in all domains of satisfaction compared to our study sample (p<0.0001). Conclusions: The study findings revealed that there is no ethnic difference observed in the satisfaction score between Qatari and Arab expatriate patients in Qatar, but a significant difference was observed between Arab and Spanish psychiatry patients in all domains of satisfaction.