Predictors of patient satisfaction with hospital health care

Table 1 Sociodemographic data of the total sample

Variables	Responders n = 1910		Non-Responders n = 703		P value
	n	%	n	%
Age (years) ± SD	62.2	16.6	63.0	19.1	0.35
Length of stay (days) $\bar{x}$ ± SD	7.6	5.9	8.5	7.4	<0.05
Sex					0.23
Men	1,026	54.3	361	51.7
Women	862	45.7	337	48.3
Admission service					<0.001
Medical	1,084	56.8	452	64.6
Surgical	826	43.2	248	35.4
Admission type					<0.001
Urgent	755	62.4	320	78.8
Planned	456	37.6	86	21.2
Marital status
Single	232	12.6
Married/cohabitating	1,261	68.3
Separated/divorced	48	2.6
Widowed	304	16.5
Education level
No education	288	15.9
Primary studies	982	54.1
High school/secondary education	395	21.8
University	148	8.2
Occupation
Employed full time	330	18.8
Employed part time	58	3.3
Homemaker	313	17.8
Unemployed	56	3.2
Student	19	1.1
Retired	825	47.0
Disabled	155	8.8
Time of response*
1^st mailing	1,001	52.4
2^nd mailing	520	27.2
3^rd mailing	389	20.4
Previous admission
Yes	1,509	82.1
No	330	17.9
No. previous admissions
<= 2	542	39.3
3–4	437	31.7
>4	400	29.0
Who completed the questionnaire
Patient	1026	55.6
Someone else	818	44.4

The sample size in each question differs because not all subjects answered all questionnaire items.
*The response rate is calculated on the basis of the total number of questionnaires returned.
Frequencies and percentages are presented, except for age and length of hospital stay, where the means and SDs are presented.

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