Publication:

Demographic influences on service quality perceptions in rural public healthcare: a pilot cross-sectional study from Mizoram, Northeast India

Background Patient satisfaction in rural public healthcare is shaped by service quality dimensions and patient demographic characteristics. Evidence from rural northeast India remains sparse. This pilot study examined how SERVPERF-based service quality dimensions predict patient satisfaction and whether demographic variables moderate dimension scores in rural Mizoram.

Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 400 patients from 14 public healthcare facilities (Primary Health Centres and District Hospitals) across seven districts of rural Mizoram between October 2023 and May 2024. A 22-item SERVPERF instrument measuring tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy was administered face-to-face. Multiple regression analysis examined service quality dimension predictors of satisfaction; Kruskal-Wallis tests and one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc analysis examined demographic variation in dimension scores.

Results The instrument demonstrated strong reliability (α=0.851; KMO=0.841). Multiple regression explained 41.8% of variance in patient satisfaction (R2=0.418, F(5, 394)=56.60, p<0.001), with reliability (β=0.864) and Assurance (β=0.634) as strongest predictors. Age was the only demographic variable to show significant differences across all five SERVPERF dimensions (p<0.01), with patients aged 60 years and above reporting consistently higher satisfaction. Gender, education, employment, visit frequency, and purpose showed no significant differences.

Conclusions Service reliability and staff assurance are the primary determinants of patient satisfaction in rural Mizoram’s public healthcare facilities. Age-specific expectations represent the dominant demographic moderator. These pilot findings informed subsequent larger-scale instrument development for the main study.