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International Journal for Quality in Health Care Advance Access originally published online on February 10, 2006
International Journal for Quality in Health Care 2006 18(2):152-158; doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzi102
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International Journal for Quality in Health Care vol. 18 no. 2 © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Society for Quality in Health Care; all rights reserved

Is personality a determinant of patient satisfaction with hospital care?

A. A. J. Hendriks1,2, E. M. A. Smets2, M. R. Vrielink3, S. Q. Van Es3 and J. C. J. M. De Haes2

1 Department of Psychology, Applied Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, 2 Department of Medical Psychology, and 3 Department of Quality Improvement, Academic Medical Center/University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Objective. We investigated to what extent personality is associated with patient satisfaction with hospital care. A sizeable association with personality would render patient satisfaction invalid as an indicator of hospital care quality.

Design. Overall satisfaction and satisfaction with aspects of care were regressed on the Big Five dimensions of personality, controlled for patient characteristics as possible explanatory variables of observed associations.

Participants. A total of 237 recently discharged inpatients aged 18–84 years (M = 50, SD = 17 years), 57% female, who were hospitalized for an average of 8 days.

Instruments. The Satisfaction with Hospital Care Questionnaire addressing 12 aspects of care ranging from admission procedures to discharge and aftercare and the Five-Factor Personality Inventory assessing a person’s standing on Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional stability, and Autonomy.

Results. Agreeableness significantly predicted patient satisfaction in about half of the scales. After controlling for shared variance with age and educational level, the unique contribution of Agreeableness shrank to a maximum of 3–5% explained variance. When one outlier was dropped from the analysis, the contribution of Agreeableness was no longer statistically significant.

Conclusion. Patient satisfaction seems only marginally associated with personality, at least at the level of the broad Big Five dimensions.

Keywords: Big Five, patient satisfaction, personality

Address reprint requests to A. A. J. Hendriks, Department of Psychology, Applied Psychology, University of Zurich, Universitätstrasse 84, CH-8006. Zurich, Switzerland. E-mail: jolijn.hendriks{at}planet.nl

Accepted for publication January 12, 2006.


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