Department of Health Economic, Management and Policy, School of Management and Medical Education, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Int J Health Plann Manage. 2021 May;36(3):689-702. doi: 10.1002/hpm.3110. Epub 2021 Jan 20.
Attitude is a factor affecting the behaviour of consumers. In the literature, the effect of health care consumer's attitude on making informal payments has been highlighted. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude of Iranian patients regarding informal payments and socio-demographic factors associated with it.
In this cross-sectional study, conducted in 2017 in Tehran, 450 patients who were admitted to the clinics of four public hospitals for post-surgical care and follow-up, were invited to participate in the study. The data collection tool was a questionnaire, which validity and reliability were confirmed. Cluster analysis was used to identify the main attitudinal groups. To investigate the effect of socio-demographic factors on patients' attitudes, generalized linear model regression analysis was carried out in SPSS 22.
Our findings showed that 57.3% of patients had agreeing attitude, 24.2% indifferent attitude, and 18.4% opposing attitude toward informal payments. Patients from rural areas and those from the high-income group had higher odds of having an agreeing attitude. There was a significant association between informal payment history and attitude. The odds of having agreeing attitude among patients with a history of informal payment were two times higher than among patients who did not have an informal payment history (p ≤ 0.05).
A positive attitude towards informal payments is an obstacle to the fight against this phenomenon. Therefore, changes in public attitudes regarding informal payments will be an essential strategy, among other strategies, for eradicating these payments. This could be achieved through public campaigns for raising people's awareness and knowledge.
态度是影响消费者行为的一个因素。在文献中，已经强调了医疗保健消费者的态度对非正式支付行为的影响。本研究的目的是调查伊朗患者对非正式支付的态度以及与之相关的社会人口学因素。
在这项 2017 年在德黑兰进行的横断面研究中，邀请了 450 名在四家公立医院接受术后护理和随访的患者参加研究。数据收集工具是一份经过验证和可靠性验证的问卷。聚类分析用于识别主要的态度群体。为了调查社会人口学因素对患者态度的影响，使用 SPSS 22 进行了广义线性模型回归分析。
我们的研究结果表明，57.3%的患者对非正式支付持同意态度，24.2%的患者持中立态度，18.4%的患者持反对态度。来自农村地区和高收入群体的患者更有可能持同意态度。有非正式支付历史的患者比没有非正式支付历史的患者更有可能持同意态度（p≤0.05）。
对非正式支付持积极态度是打击这种现象的障碍。因此，改变公众对非正式支付的态度将是消除这些支付的重要策略之一。这可以通过提高人们的意识和知识的公众宣传活动来实现。
