Hospital outpatient perceptions of the physical environment of waiting areas: the role of patient characteristics on atmospherics in one academic medical center

Table 4 Univariate analyses of patient satisfaction with the physical environments of outpatient waiting areas across patient personal characteristics and visiting information (n = 680)

	Visual environment	Voice environment	Body contact environment	Cleanliness (overall and restrooms)	Analytical techniques
Gender	t = 0.689	t = 0.004	t = -1.357	t = 4.349	t-test
	sig = 0.491	sig = 0.997	sig = 0.175	sig = 0.000***
				Male patients > Female patients
Age	β = 0.009	β = 0.008	β = 0.009	β = 0.002	Simple regression
	sig0.003**	sig = 0.011*	sig = 0.003**	sig = 0.611
Education	F = 1.520	F = 1.400	F = 3.432	F = 0.306	ANOVA
	sig = 0.208	sig = 0.242	sig = 0.017*	sig = 0.821
			Patients with undergraduate and above < Patients with elementary and below
Visiting frequency	t = 1.175	t = -0.672	t = -2.827	t = -0.499	t-test
	sig = 0.240	sig = 0.502	sig = 0.005**	sig = 0.618
			First-time patients < Returning patients
Visiting time	t = 2.520	t = 0.718	t = -1.241	t = 2.073	t-test
	sig = 0.012*	sig = 0.473	sig = 0.215	sig = 0.039*
	Morning patients > Afternoon patients			Morning patients > Afternoon patients

Note:
1. Education was measured as four levels: undergraduate and graduate school, senior high school, junior high school, elementary school and below
2. Gender was measured as two levels: male vs. female.
3. Visiting frequency was measured as two levels: first-time patients vs. returning patients.
4. Visiting time was measured as tow levels: morning vs. afternoon
5. Patient salary and living areas (in city residents vs. outside city residents) showed no statistically significant relationships with their perceived physical environments of the medical waiting rooms in the univariate analysis and were not shown in this table.
6. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001

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