Predictors of overall satisfaction of cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy

Figures & data

Table 1 Patients baseline of the study cohort

Characteristics	Number of patients (%)/mean value
Sex (n=1,710)
Female	1,015 (59%)
Male	695 (41%)
Age (n=1,707)	63.5 years (21–89 years)
<45 years	296 (17%)
<46–70 years	925 (54%)
>71 years	486 (28%)
Disease entity (n=1,710)
Breast cancer	617 (36%)
Gynecological cancer	40 (2%)
Prostate cancer	217 (13%)
Gastrointestinal cancer	193 (11%)
Lung cancer	74 (4%)
Head and neck	121 (7%)
Other or metastatic disease	448 (26%)

Table 2 Associations between each survey question and the overall satisfaction score

Question	Satisfaction score		Correlation with overall satisfaction (P-value)	Complete approval (%)	Very good and good satisfaction scores (%)
	Mean	SD
Overall satisfaction	1.4	0.6		88.5	98.4
Waiting time/appointment scheduling	1.7	0.7	0.11	44.1	88.1
Accuracy of information about therapy, explanation about side effects	1.4	0.6	0.033	62.2	97.8
Courteous behavior of
Physicians	1.3	0.5	0.02	75.1	99.4
Radiation therapist	1.1	0.4	<0.001	90.1	100
Receptionists	2.1	0.9	0.71	65.1	75.3
Care and professional skills provided by
Physicians	1.4	0.6	0.033	60.2	97.8
Radiation therapist	1.5	0.6	0.038	51.1	91.4
Protection of privacy and personal interests
Physicians	1.3	0.5	0.031	72.2	99.1
Radiation therapist	1.2	0.5	<0.001	79.6	100
Environment of the treatment institution
Seating	1.7	0.9	0.09	40.0	85.3
Location information	1.7	0.7	0.09	38.9	87.1
Availability of newspapers during the waiting time	2.5	0.9	0.21	24.1	52.7
Cleanliness	1.6	0.6	0.048	50.0	88.8

Abbreviation: SD, standard deviation.

Table 3 Linear regression analysis: significant predictors for the overall satisfaction score

Item	R^2	β (95% CI)	P-value
Courteous behavior of radiation therapists	0.66	0.003	<0.001
Courteous behavior of physicians		0.004	<0.001
Protection of privacy (entire personal staff)		0.06	<0.001
Care and skills of physicians		0.17	0.03
Care and skills of radiation therapists		0.18	0.031
Information about therapy		0.31	0.04
Cleanliness		0.32	0.035

Abbreviations: β, regression coefficient; CI, confidence interval.

Figure 1 Differences in answers to survey questions between head and neck cancer (H&N) patients (---) and all patients (…).

Notes: Patient satisfaction with information, care and skills of the radiation therapists, and protection of privacy by physicians/radiation therapists were significantly different between the H&N patients and the entire study group (P<0.05).
Abbreviations: mw, mean value; md, median value; s, standard deviation.

Table 4 Overall satisfaction scores for different cancer origins

Disease entity	Satisfaction score (mean)	SD
Prostate cancer	1.4	0.5
Breast cancer	1.4	0.6
Gynecological cancer	1.4	0.6
Gastrointestinal cancer	1.4	0.6
Lung cancer	1.4	0.6
Head and neck cancer	1.8	0.4 (P=0.049)

Abbreviation: SD, standard deviation.

Figure 2 The dependence of the subjective evaluation of major health care components on sex was not significant (P>0.05), although appointment scheduling was a bit more important and overall courtesy was a bit less important for female patients than for male patients.

Figure 3 Comparison of the responses to selected survey items for all patients whose overall satisfaction score is 1 (…) versus those for all patients whose overall satisfaction score ≥1 (---) (P<0.05).

Abbreviations: mw, mean value; md, median value; s, standard deviation.