Active Health Information Behaviour and Patient’s Satisfaction in Tertiary Health Institutions in Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The global practice in healthcare service delivery is to view the patient as a customer whose 
satisfaction must be given adequate consideration for the mutual benefit of health professionals 
and the patient. This has made studies on patient satisfaction to be growing worldwide. However, 
few studies have explored the role of patients’ information seeking behaviour on patient 
satisfaction. The purpose of the study is therefore to investigate health information behaviour and 
patient satisfaction in tertiary health institutions in Imo State, Nigeria. This study adopts the 
descriptive survey research design. The population comprises patients of Imo State Tertiary 
Health Institutions. A sample of three hundred and seventy-five (375) patients was selected using 
simple random sampling. A structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data which 
was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found a high level of 
patient satisfaction among the respondents (Mean= 3.02). it was also found that the overall 
information seeking behaviour is positive (Mean =3.06). Furthermore, test of hypothesis showed 
that active information seeking behaviour (R2 = 0.311; p. 0.005)has significant influence on 
patient satisfaction. The study concluded that it is important for patients and healthcare providers 
to empower each other through information sharing. It was therefore recommended that tertiary 
hospitals in Imo state must be more proactive in ensuring that the level of patient satisfaction is 
sustained with efforts made to ensure that few lapses observed by the patients are addressed.