Tekirdağ Namık Kemal Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Öğrencilerinde Algılanan Sağlık Hizmeti Kalitesi ve Sağlık Hizmeti Kullanımı

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the frequency of health service utilization among health sciences students studying at Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University (NKU), the types of health care institutions they prefer, their perceived levels of health service quality, and the relationships between these variables and demographic factors. The study population consisted of 522 students enrolled in the School of Health (SH) and the Vocational School of Health Services (VSHS) at Tekirdag Namık Kemal University during the 2016–2017 academic year, including 402 females and 120 males. Of these, 437 participants (83.7%) who completed the questionnaire fully through face-to-face interviews were included in the study.

Designed as a cross-sectional study, data were collected using a 35-item questionnaire developed by the researchers to assess sociodemographic characteristics and health service utilization, along with the 30-item SERVQUAL Perceived Health Service Quality Scale. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, while comparative analyses were conducted using the Student’s t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the chi-square test. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 18.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), and a p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Analysis of health service utilization preferences revealed that public hospitals were the primary first point of contact, whereas utilization of family physicians and medico-social centers remained low. Nearly half of the participants reported being unaware of the referral system, suggesting that primary health care services are not being used effectively. Although no significant difference was found between gender and overall expectations and perceptions of service quality, female participants attached greater importance than males to certain quality dimensions, including responsiveness, physical aspects, and empathy. The smallest gap between expected and perceived service quality was observed in the physical aspects dimension, while differences in service quality expectations and perceptions were identified according to educational level. A positive but weak correlation was found between expected and perceived service quality. According to SERVQUAL analysis, scores were negative across all service quality dimensions, with the largest gap observed in the reliability dimension. These findings indicate that health care institutions generally fail to meet users’ expectations. It was concluded that improving health service quality requires the regular assessment of service users’ expectations, the planning of improvements responsive to these expectations, and the monitoring of this process through repeated scientific studies conducted with larger samples.