engleski

Public perception of primary health care quality in the Republic of Croatia

Thanks to the intense development of science in the last thirty years, an enor-mous and rapid progress has been made in the sphere of medical activity and the success of disease treatment. Th e improvements are so fast and signifi cant that they are permanently producing the growth of expectations of the popu-lation regarding more successful, better and more comprehensive activities of health system. Th e aim of the survey is to get subjective insights into the quality of health care in the Republic of Croatia by interviewing citizens.Th e survey was conducted on a sample of 980 respondents from the entire Republic of Croatia. A written questionnaire was used for collecting the data. Th e data analysis used the methods of descriptive statistics. Descriptive statisti-cal indicators were determined for all survey variables, based on respondents’ responses that were measured on a 5- degree scale. Diff erences at a scale of p < 0.05 were considered as statistically signifi cant diff erences.There are more women in the sample than men. Slightly more than half of the respondents belong to the younger group, while elderly are the least presented in the sample. If we consider non- grouped data, the average age of r espondents was 39.32 years with a standard deviation of 15.9 years. Most respondents said they did not suff er from acute and chronic illness. The largest number of respondents said they use primary health care services, and approximately a third of them stated they use them rarely. More than 95% of respondents said they have compulsory health insurance. There is also a very large percentage of respondents who have supplementary health insurance, with more respondents paying for the insurance policy themselves. Unlike compulsory and supplemen-tary health insurance, additional insurance is reported by less than 15% of respondents.Respondents mostly neutrally assessed the claim that healthcare quality in the Republic of Croatia, as well as in their place of residence, is at a high level, but the number of those who agreed with this claim is also signifi cant.Th ere is evidently a problem of public perception of the quality of health care system in the Republic of Croatia by its users. It should be noted that this is not an ideal system, but on the other hand it should be noted that it is a sys-tem which, considering all the circumstances, generally achieves positive results when it comes to its fundamental goals

health, primary health care, quality, citizens

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