Treatment expectation among patients with diabetes and hypertension in a tertiary hospital, Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria: a cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: patients' satisfaction is an important aspect in determining the quality of health care since it reveals how staff are progressing toward the patients' objectives. Objective: the study determined the treatment perception and expectations among diabetes and hypertensive patients in a teaching hospital in Ekiti State, Nigeria. METHODS: the study employed a cross-sectional design approach with a sample size of 200 participants. Descriptive analyses were used to answer the research questions while inferential statistics were used to test hypotheses at a significant level of p < 0.05. RESULTS: the findings revealed that 50% (n=196) and 57.1% (n=196) of the patients with diabetes and hypertension were above 60 years with mean age and standard deviation being 3.36 ± 0.72, while 63.3% (n=196) and 64.3% (n=196) of the patients with diabetes and hypertension were females. Overall, the results revealed a significant difference between the domains of participants´ expectations and perceptions, with the expectations domains being significantly higher for both diabetes and hypertensive patients with mean score and standard deviation being (-5.14 (±1.62) and -4.55 (±1.83)) respectively. However, the difference in the gap scores between the participants with diabetes and those with hypertension across the domains of patients´ expectations and perceptions was significant. Furthermore, apart from the tangible domain 19.76 (±0.87) (p < 0.05), the findings from the study showed that participants with diabetes had significantly higher expectation scores, when compared with those with hypertension in all domains. Additionally, the participants with diabetes showed the highest level of perception in the tangible 15.75 (±1.43) and empathy 20.50 (±1.20) domains while those with hypertension showed the highest level of perception in the reliability, responsiveness, and assurance domains (21.66 (±2.45), 16.58 (±1.38) and 21.43 (±2.03) p < 0.001 respectively). CONCLUSION: efforts should be intensified by nurses and all other stakeholders to exceed patients´ expectations by continually improving the quality of health care and services offered to patients.