Satisfaction of HIV patients with pharmaceutical services in South Eastern Nigerian hospitals

Abstract

Background: Pharmacists play an important role in the care of HIV patients especially by providing pharmaceutical care. Thus it is imperative to assess the experience and satisfaction of HIV patients with the pharmaceutical services they receive as this will ensure that quality care is provided.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess HIV-infected patients' satisfaction with pharmaceutical services provided in South-Eastern Nigeria's HIV/AIDS clinics. A secondary aim was to repeat the validation process in order to confirm the initial validation of 'Patient Satisfaction with Pharmaceutical Service' (PSPS) questionnaire.

Methods: The survey was conducted in six HIV/AIDS clinics in South-Eastern Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the clinics. The level of satisfaction of the participants was determined. Variance in satisfaction score among the different demographic variables was also assessed. Re-validation techniques employed include factor analysis, reliability test, and construct validity. Results The response rate was 81.85 % (1,637 patients). With the exception of item 12 which examined provision of written information by pharmacists, the average score obtained in the survey was high. Most of the average scores ranged from 4 to 5, signifying that responses ranged from agree to strongly agree. Re-validation of the PSPS questionnaire revealed the same result obtained in the original validation exercise.

Conclusion: HIV patients were highly satisfied with services rendered by the pharmacists in South-Eastern HIV clinics in Nigeria and PSPS proved to be a reliable and valid instrument for measuring satisfaction of HIV patients with pharmaceutical services.