Meta-analysis of satisfaction with medical care: description of research domain and analysis of overall satisfaction levels.

Consumer satisfaction with medical care was examined in a meta-analysis of 221 studies. For each study, (1) a coding form was filled out that described sample characteristics, design, and instrument methodology, and (2) the study sample's overall satisfaction level was transformed to a 0.00-1.00 scale. This article summarizes the study attributes as compiled from the coding form, presents grand satisfaction means over all studies, and tests for differences in satisfaction between studies that employed different methods of research.