Bahanan Lina, Bashkail Fatmh, Alghamdi Afrah, Alhazmy Ahlaa
Dental Public Health, King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Dentistry, Jeddah, SAU.
General Dentist, King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Dentistry, Jeddah, SAU.
Cureus. 2023 Aug 24;15(8):e44028. doi: 10.7759/cureus.44028. eCollection 2023 Aug.
Background It is crucial to recognize patients' behavioral responses to improve oral healthcare delivery. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) is typically used to measure service user preferences. The purpose of this study was to examine the preferences of the Saudi population regarding primary dental care using a DCE. Materials and methods An online DCE survey was distributed among adults aged 18 years and older living in Saudi Arabia. An orthogonal design was used to reduce the number of combinations while maintaining the main effects that reflect patient preferences. Respondents were presented with a reduced set of 10 cards (tasks), and each of the cards had two concepts (offers). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the sample characteristics. The coefficients were calculated based on discrete choice results on the Qualtrics platform. Results A total of 532 participants completed the survey. Among patients seeking a preventive dental visit, the ability to get an appointment was rated the most important influence on their decision with a relative importance of 41%, followed by the dental care provider (29%) and the dental clinic in relation to the sector and the fees (20%). The least important attribute was the waiting time in minutes, with a relative importance of 10%. Conclusion The study findings revealed that patients make trade-offs when deciding to receive primary dental care. Policymakers can use the study's findings to inform their decisions concerning dental clinic services. The study results suggest that it is possible to improve access to primary dental care by improving the accessibility of appointments.
背景 认识到患者的行为反应对于改善口腔医疗服务至关重要。离散选择实验（DCE）通常用于衡量服务使用者的偏好。本研究的目的是使用DCE来考察沙特人群对初级牙科护理的偏好。
材料与方法 一项在线DCE调查在居住在沙特阿拉伯的18岁及以上成年人中进行。采用正交设计以减少组合数量，同时保持反映患者偏好的主要效应。向受访者展示一组精简至10张的卡片（任务），每张卡片有两个概念（选项）。使用描述性统计来总结样本特征。系数基于Qualtrics平台上的离散选择结果进行计算。
结果 共有532名参与者完成了调查。在寻求预防性牙科就诊的患者中，能够预约被评为对其决策影响最大的因素，相对重要性为41%，其次是牙科护理提供者（29%）以及与科室和费用相关的牙科诊所（20%）。最不重要的属性是等待时间（分钟），相对重要性为10%。
结论 研究结果表明，患者在决定接受初级牙科护理时会进行权衡。政策制定者可以利用该研究结果为其有关牙科诊所服务的决策提供参考。研究结果表明，通过改善预约的可及性有可能改善初级牙科护理的可及性。
