ABSTRACT
Patient satisfaction with medical care is an important factor affecting treatment outcome in a chronic disease like diabetes mellitus. This study was formulated to detect the impact of patient satisfaction on glycaemic control among diabetic patients. The cross-sectional design was selected. A sample size of 526 diabetic patients was selected from a diabetes clinic to reveal the impact of patient satisfaction on fasting blood glucose and glycated haemoglobin A1c. The structured interview technique was adopted to collect both socio-demographic and clinical data of diabetic patients in addition to a fasting blood sample. The overall satisfaction and communication domains have the highest satisfaction mean scores [14.27 +/- 1.878 and 13.65 +/- 1.476], while accessibility and waiting time domains have the lowest satisfaction scores [8.97 +/- 2.059 and 8.99 +/- 1.387]. Diabetics with higher total satisfaction score were practicing regular periodic check up [82.37 +/- 7.027 compared with 78.63 +/- 7.538, P < 0.001], diet control [82.55 +/- 6.632 compared with 80.88 +/- 7.596, P = 0.0113] and were adherent to treatment regimen [81.96 +/- 7.072 compared with 77.92 +/- 8.068, P < 0.001]. Diabetic patients achieving the targeted level of either fasting blood glucose [83.35 +/- 6.777 compared with 80.72 +/- 7.418, P <0.001] or HbA1c [85.66 +/- 5.211 compared with 80.48 +/- 7.415, P < 0.001] had a significantly higher total satisfaction score than those not achieving the targeted levels. Satisfied diabetics with administered health services were more adherent to healthy practices and had a better control on HbA1c the long term component of glycaemic control