Evaluation of occupational health service in the wood processing industry--determination of employee satisfaction.

In order to define priorities for improvement of the occupational health service (OHS) in one primary health care unit, employees' satisfaction was evaluated with a postal questionnaire. The questionnaire covered items on service reservation, personal health education received, quality of the OHS, and use of the OHS within six months by the employees. This evaluation was one step of the quality system that was planned in accordance with the ISO 9004-2 standard for continuous quality improvement of OHS. The study population was all of 1,050 employees working for five employers; 546 (52%) employees responded to the inquiry. However, only 377 of them had made use of the OHS within the last six months before the inquiry. The mean age of the responders was 42 years (SD = 9 years) and 76% of the respondents were men. The percentages of employees with a high degree of satisfaction with the quality of the OHS and personal health education in the OHS were 76% and 69%, respectively. However, concerning the quality of the OHS, the proportion of highly satisfied employees was 27% higher (95% CI = 19-35%) among those who had used OHS within six months compared to the others. Furthermore, when the oldest (> 48 years) and the youngest (< 35 years) age groups were compared, the difference between the proportions of highly satisfied employees was 21% (95% CI = 31%). In conclusion, the high differences suggest a close linkage between the employee's satisfaction with the OHS, the use of the OHS and ageing.