Objective To comprehensively evaluate the perceived acquisition of basic public health services (BPHS) among residents in Gansu province.

Methods We conducted a self-administered anonymous questionnaire survey among 3 780 adult residents (≥18 years old) selected with stratified sampling from 14 prefectures across Gansu province between July and September 2017. A self-designed questionnaire about awareness of health knowledge, utilization of and satisfaction to BPHS was used in the survey. Chi-square test, factor analysis, and cluster analysis were used in data analyses.

Results Valid information were collected from 96.93% (3 664) of the residents. There were significant differences in awareness of health knowledge (χ² = 31.455) and satisfaction to BPHS (χ² = 14.506) among the participants in different regions (both P < 0.01). Among all the participants, the average overall score for perceived acquisition of BPHS was 3.09 ± 0.38 and the participants being main health care recipients were graded with the highest domain score on items of BPHS (3.98 ± 1.31) but the lowest score on cognition of BPHS-related policies (1.20 ± 0.62). The results of cluster analysis demonstrated that the elderly participants (aged≥65 years) had the highest perceived acquisition of BPHS (FZ = 3.16 ± 0.33), while the young participants had the lowest (FZ = 2.93 ± 0.43).

Conclusion Perceived acquisition of BPHS could assessed in three dimensions including awareness of health knowledge, utilization of and satisfaction to BPHS among residents and the perceived acquisition of BPHS is different among various adult populations in Gansu province.