Dissatisfaction with Local Medical Services for Middle-Aged and Elderly in China: What Is Relevant?

• Main Authors: Xiaojing Fan, Min Su, Yaxin Zhao, Duolao Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: dissatisfaction; local medical services; determinants; binary outcome; middle-aged and elderly person
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/3931
• ISSN: 1661-7827; 1660-4601

As violent clashes between doctors and patients in China intensify, patient dissatisfaction has been identified as a major concern in the current healthcare reform in China. This study aims to investigate the main determinants of dissatisfaction with local medical services attributable to middle-aged and elderly characteristics and identify areas for improvement. A total of 14,263 rural participants and 4898 urban participants were drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2018. Dissatisfaction was measured by two methods: binary outcome (1 = Dissatisfaction; 0 = No) demonstrated the risk of occurring dissatisfaction among various characteristics, and continuous outcome (ranges from score 1 to 5) showed the degree. The mean score of dissatisfaction was 2.73 ± 1.08. Sixteen percent of rural participants and 19% of urban participants reported dissatisfaction with local medical services, respectively. The multilevel analyses demonstrated that participants’ utilization of paid family doctor services decreased the risk of occurring dissatisfaction; dissatisfaction was less focused on females; having chronic diseases increased the risk of dissatisfaction. This study suggests promotion of family doctor services can effectively reduce middle-aged and elderly dissatisfaction with the local medical services. In addition, more attention should be focused on males and middle-aged and elderly with chronic diseases in order to decrease dissatisfaction.