Satarzadeh Laleh, Tabatabaee Seyed Saeed, Ghavami Vahid, Moghri Javad
Student Research Committee, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 18;15(1):13500. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-98678-6.
Access to healthcare services is an important aspect in providing health care, but there is little information about the perception level of people who have come to healthcare centers about access to services in Herat, Afghanistan. The aim of this study was to investigate the perception level of people referred to healthcare centers in Herat in 2024. The study was a cross -sectional study and participants (n = 420) included individuals aged 18-65 to Herat healthcare centers. The cluster sampling method was that each of the 31 service centers was considered. Modified Penchansky and Thomas's (2015) Theory of Access questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of people referred to medical centers in Herat. The results demonstrated that the perception level of clients significantly varied across different variables such as age, gender, economic conditions, job status, education level, and marital status. The mean scores for the perception level of various variables including accessibility, acceptability, affordability, accommodation, awareness, and availability were reported as 65.86, 30.48, 52.48, 64.05, 73.11, and 63.31, respectively. The results indicated that perception level was the highest for awareness and after it accessibility, and affordability, respectively. Moreover, education level and job status had a statistically significant effect on perception level (P-value < 0.05). This study revealed the importance of considering demographic characteristics when assessing the level of peoples' perceptions of access to health care services. Improving access to health care services requires a comprehensive understanding of the various factors that influence levels of perception. Addressing these factors can help to increase the quality and effectiveness of providing health services in Herat city.
获得医疗服务是提供医疗保健的一个重要方面,但关于前往阿富汗赫拉特医疗中心的人们对服务可及性的认知水平,几乎没有相关信息。本研究的目的是调查2024年前往赫拉特医疗中心的人们的认知水平。该研究为横断面研究,参与者(n = 420)包括年龄在18至65岁之间前往赫拉特医疗中心的个人。采用整群抽样方法,即考虑31个服务中心中的每一个。使用经修改的彭钱斯基和托马斯(2015年)的可及性理论问卷,从前往赫拉特医疗中心的人群样本中收集数据。结果表明,客户的认知水平在年龄、性别、经济状况、工作状态、教育水平和婚姻状况等不同变量上存在显著差异。包括可及性、可接受性、可负担性、便利性、认知度和可得性等各种变量的认知水平平均得分分别报告为65.86、30.48、52.48、64.05、73.11和63.31。结果表明,认知水平在认知度方面最高,其次是可及性和可负担性。此外,教育水平和工作状态对认知水平有统计学上的显著影响(P值<0.05)。本研究揭示了在评估人们对获得医疗服务的认知水平时考虑人口统计学特征的重要性。改善医疗服务的可及性需要全面了解影响认知水平的各种因素。解决这些因素有助于提高赫拉特市提供医疗服务的质量和效果。