Evaluations on community health institutions and pediatric services among parents of children under 14 years of age in urban Fuzhou

  Objective  To investigate evaluations on community health institutions and pediatric service and factors affecting the evaluations among the parents with children aged ≤ 14 years in urban regions of Fuzhou city, Fujian province.

  Methods  An on-site self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among 1 021 parents of children ≤ 14 years old selected with convenient sampling in 3 urban districts of Fuzhou city of Fujian province between August and October 2017. Influencing factors of the parents′ satisfaction to medical services to their children was explored with logistic regression analysis.

  Results  Of the 936 respondents with valid information, 68.06% reported the preference of selecting provincial or municipal medical institutions when their children suffering from common diseases. Of the respondents with the preference of visiting a community health institution for their children′s common illness, 49.68% reported the consideration of transportation convenience for the selection and only 19.50% reported the consideration of medical cost or medical insurance reimbursement; of the respondents not selecting community health institution service, 73.75% considered that the community institution having no adequate capability on pediatric diagnosis and treatment. Only 20.73% of the respondents reported the satisfaction to the medical services to their children. Ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed following significant hindering factors for the satisfaction to medical insurance for children among the respondents: with a child aged 1 – 3 years (odds ratio OR = 1.976, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 1.089 – 3.585), annual household income of less than 80 000 yuan RMB (OR = 21.607, 95% CI: 6.758 – 69.081), with a child in good or fair health (for good health: OR = 6.259, 95% CI: 2.561 – 15.299, for fair health: OR = 3.540, 95% CI: 1.512 – 8.287) (P < 0.05 for all).

  Conclusion  The parents of under 14 years children have a less confidence for pediatric diagnosis and treatment provided by community medical institutions and a low satisfaction to medical service for children and the satisfaction is influenced mainly by their children's age, annual household income and children's health condition.