DOES THE HEALTH-STATUS OF CHRONICALLY ILL PATIENTS PREDICT THEIR JUDGMENTS OF THE QUALITY OF GENERAL-PRACTICE CARE

Patients' health status as well as patients' judgements of care are us ed for assessing patients' perspectives, but the relation between thos e two concepts is unclear. In this study we explored whether health st atus predicts patients' judgements of the quality of general practice care. Hand-distributed and mailed surveys were performed by 28 general practitioners in The Netherlands. Chronically ill patients were appro ached when visiting the general practice or drawn from the practice re gisters. Health status was measured by WONCA/COOP charts, and patients ' judgements by the CEP, a previously validated questionnaire. The res ponse rate was 63% (n = 762). When controlled for other patient charac teristics, a poor overall health predicted less positive judgements of medical care, information, counselling, relation and communication, c ontinuity of care and the organization of appointments (p < 0.01). Poo r mental well-being predicted less positive judgements of the cooperat ion between care providers and a stronger need for more care (p < 0.00 1). The four other aspects of health status did not predict the patien ts' judgements. Judgements about the premises and the availability for emergencies were not predicted by health status. It can be concluded that a multidimensional approach should be used for interpreting the r elations between patients' hearth status and their judgements of gener al practice care.