Public Awareness and Utilization of the Primary Health Care Services in Al-Madinah, Saudi Arabia

Objectives / Background: The presence of PHC alone is not enough to guarantee the utilization of provided services; the level of awareness can affect the use of these services. This study has assessed the awareness level and addressed various factors that could encourage or discourage patients to utilize PHC in Al-Madinah. Method: A cross-sectional, descriptive, community-based study was conducted from January to March 2018 through a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions about sociodemographic characteristics and assessed the awareness and utilization of PHC services in Al-Madinah. Data were collected from 481 randomly sampled individuals. Results: More than 80% of the respondents were aware of the existence of a PHCC in their district. Nonetheless, 30.7% of them never utilized PHC services. The most known services provided by PHC were immunization (79%), referral to secondary/tertiary hospitals (60%), and follow-up for children's health (54.3%). However, other services fell behind in awareness, such as anti-smoking clinics (11.2%) and community psychiatric clinics (5.8%). The utilization of PHCCs was significantly associated with age, sex, marital status, occupation and general health status. The main reason encouraging respondents to utilize PHCCs was the short distance between the place of residence and the PHCC location (54.1%), while the main reason for not using PHC was dissatisfaction with services (38.3%). Conclusion: Regular assessment of patient satisfaction and patterns of utilization is important to promote the quality of PHC services. Also, to maximize PHC utilization, collaborative efforts from PHC staff, the government, and the Al-Madinah community are needed.