The Relationship between Patient Satisfaction with Service Quality and Survival in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer – Is Self-Rated Health a Potential Confounder?

Christopher G Lis, Kamal Patel and Digant Gupta

PLOS ONE, 2015, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Background/Aims: Previously we reported that higher patient satisfaction (PS) with service quality is associated with favorable survival outcomes in a variety of cancers. However, we cautioned the readers that patients with greater satisfaction might be the ones with better self-rated health (SRH), a well-established prognosticator of cancer survival. In other words, SRH could potentially confound the PS and survival relationship. We investigated this hypothesis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: 778 NSCLC patients (327 males and 451 females; mean age 58.8 years) treated at 4 Cancer Treatment Centers of America hospitals between July 2011 and March 2013. PS was measured on a 7-point scale ranging from “completely dissatisfied” to “completely satisfied”. SRH was measured on a 7-point scale ranging from “very poor” to “excellent”. Both were dichotomized into 2 categories: top box response (7) versus all others (1–6). Patient survival was the primary end point. Cox regression was used to evaluate the association between PS and survival controlling for covariates. Results: 74, 70, 232 and 391 patients had stage I, II, III and IV disease respectively. 631 (81.1%) patients were “completely satisfied”. 184 (23.7%) patients had “excellent” SRH. There was a weak but significant correlation between overall PS and SRH (Kendall’s tau b = 0.19; p

Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0134617

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0134617

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