Assessing health service satisfaction among users with substance use disorders within the municipalities in Norway

Abstract

Background The purpose of this study was to assess what is associated with health service satisfaction among adults with a substance use disorder receiving services provided within different municipalities in Norway. An additional aim was to examine demographic and municipality characteristics, mental health, and types of substance use associated with health service satisfaction. Method A cross-sectional partial explorative study was executed in 2017 among 491 service users with substance use disorders from 20 randomly selected municipalities. The sample consisted of 70% males. The sample majority were single and unemployed, and their main sources of healthcare were the general practitioner (78%), The Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration (72%), and addiction counsellors (62%). Results Overall satisfaction was negatively associated with age, size of municipality, Global Severity Index (GSI) and illicit substance use during the last 12 months. Satisfaction with practical help, such as housing, economy, work and education, was negatively associated with GSI and positively associated with onset of first alcohol intoxication. Satisfaction with personnel was positively associated with onset of first alcohol intoxication and negatively associated with municipality size, GSI and illicit use the last 12 months. The results showed that more than half of the respondents (54%) to a large or great extent were satisfied with the overall services provided. The services they were less satisfied with were related to housing, economy, getting started with exercise and establishing a social network. Conclusion The results show areas associated with satisfaction and domains where the municipalities can improve their services to meet the users’ needs and increase service satisfaction. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13011-019-0207-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Factors predicting satisfaction in outpatient substance abuse treatment: a prospective follow-up study

“…In this respect, the predictive role of the complexity of the substance use problem in terms of prior use supports this same phenomenon: the more complex the problem, the greater the discrepancy between the client's expectations and the treatment received (see e.g. [18]) The findings suggest that those who are most satisfied are the ones with the mildest problems. This relationship may be inverse; perhaps those respondents whose substance use is less problematic are more likely to be satisfied and compliant.…”

“…People using multiple substances were less satisfied than those using only one substance. Prior substance use has been found to be a significant predictor of treatment outcome in numerous studies [9,18]. When the substance use problem was more complicated the client was less satisfied at followup.…”

“…These somewhat contradictory findings rely on the quantity of research published and firmly corroborate the positive connection between satisfaction and other outcome measures. According to recent research, it seems plausible that a positive connection exists [7,18], and even with more complicated client groups [19]. Outcome indicators seem to be interconnected; client's expectations on entering treatment and the whole process of treatment contribute to satisfaction with the treatment received and eventually treatment outcome [11,20,21].…”

“…When treatment satisfaction is seen as an antecedent of better substance abuse treatment outcomes in terms, for instance, of retention in treatment or substanceabusing behaviour, it is clinically relevant to understand what factors affect the client's satisfaction (see [17,18]). Hence it is possible to identify the population whose treatment should receive the most attention, how the client's experience could be improved and consequently also, their commitment to treatment and treatment effectiveness.…”

Involvement of people who use alcohol and other drug services in the development of patient‐reported measures of experience: A scoping review

“…Five measures that were developed with service user involvement did not assess and/or explicitly report on their psychometric properties. 29 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 48 Almost half (13) of the measures—including seven developed with service user involvement 31 , 39 , 40 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 69 —reported undertaking some form of analysis of the underlying scale structure and constructs of the measures (using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis or principal component analysis). Eight studies explicitly reported that they confirmed the face (7) and/or content (2) validity of their measures, 30 , 41 , 42 , 49 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 68 with six of these reporting involvement of AOD service users in their development.…”