Associations of Quality of Life with Service Satisfaction in Psychotic Patients: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

BackgroundQuality of life (QoL) has gained increasing attention as a desired outcome of psychosocial treatments targeting psychotic patients. Yet, the relationship between the patients’ satisfaction with services and QoL has not been clearly established, perhaps due to the multidimensionality of the QoL concept and the variability in its assessment.AimThis is the first systematic meta-analysis of all available evidence assessing the relationship between QoL and service satisfaction. Methods: In all, 19 studies reporting data of 21 independent samples (N = 5,337) were included in the present meta-analysis. In moderator analyses, effects of age, sex, diagnoses (schizophrenia vs. other psychoses), treatment context (inpatients vs. outpatients), study design (cross-sectional vs. longitudinal), and QoL domain (subjective vs. health-related) were examined.ResultsAnalyses revealed a highly significant medium-sized effect (r = .30, p < .001) for the associations of QoL and service satisfaction. Effect sizes were significantly stronger for subjective than health-related quality of life (r = .35 vs. r = .14, respectively). Moreover, associations with subjective QoL remained largely robust when accounting for moderating variables, although there was a trend of stronger associations for outpatients compared to inpatients. In contrast, effect sizes for health-related QoL were small and only observable for samples with longitudinal designs.ConclusionAssociations between QoL and service satisfaction appear to be robust but are differentiated in regard to QoL domain. Our findings suggest that agents responsible for service design and implementation need to take the patients’ perception of the service adequacy for achieving QoL enhancement into account.

Satisfaction with health and community services among homeless and formerly homeless individuals in Quebec, Canada

“…Elevated levels of user satisfaction with services were also associated with better quality of life in previous studies of individuals with serious MHD (Furrer et al, ; Nasrallah, Targum, Tandon, McCombs, & Ross, ; Petkari & Pietschnig, ), which seems reasonable. Perceptions of being appropriately treated may also have positive effects for quality of life (Nasrallah et al, ; Petkari & Pietschnig, ), as may positive user assessments of service quality (e.g. adequacy of staff, and quality of information received; Petkari & Pietschnig, ).…”

“…According to the literature, frequent health services users are also those who receive inadequate treatment or insufficient continuity of care; they are often high users of emergency departments in particular (Richard-Lepouriel et al, 2015). Elevated levels of user satisfaction with services were also associated with better quality of life in previous studies of individuals with serious MHD (Furrer et al, 2018;Nasrallah, Targum, Tandon, McCombs, & Ross, 2005;Petkari & Pietschnig, 2015), which seems reasonable. Perceptions of being appropriately treated may also have positive effects for quality of life (Nasrallah et al, 2005;Petkari & Pietschnig, 2015), as may positive user assessments of service quality (e.g.…”

“…Perceptions of being appropriately treated may also have positive effects for quality of life (Nasrallah et al, 2005;Petkari & Pietschnig, 2015), as may positive user assessments of service quality (e.g. adequacy of staff, and quality of information received; Petkari & Pietschnig, 2015). Finally, social network had a positive influence on subjective well-being, and was correlated with patient satisfaction (Swanson et al, 2003).…”

Patient’s early satisfaction with care: a predictor of health-related quality of life change among outpatients with substance dependence

“…Researchers exploring the relationship between satisfaction with care and QoL among patients with serious mental illness have largely reported a positive relationship between the two [52,53]. Nevertheless, studies investigating the causal nature of this relationship have remained sparse, and thus far, only a few have found a positive association between satisfaction with care and QoL among those patients [28,54]. Thus, our results might be even more useful for interventions among clinicians to make them more aware of patients who are unsatisfied early in their care.…”

“…In addition, a published study found that sociodemographic and clinical factors, such as marital status, income and somatic or psychological comorbidities, explained differences in QoL changes between alcohol-dependent twins and their abstinent cotwins [27]. Similarly, the relationship between patients' satisfaction with care and QoL changes has not been clearly established among populations with psychiatric disorders [28]. Patient satisfaction can be defined as an individual's cognitive evaluation of and emotional reaction to his or her health care experience [29,30].…”