Service Quality Assessment and Health Information Needs of Clients in Cancer Screening Clinic

Abstract

This descriptive study aimed to assess the service-quality and health-information needs of a sample of 420 clients using services at the Cancer Screening Clinic of the National Cancer Institute. The research instruments comprised a personal demographic questionnaire, a healthinformation- needs questionnaire, and a service quality assessment scale (SQAS) using the SERVQUAL model proposed by Parasuraman, Zheitaml and Berry. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the health-information-needs questionnaire and SQAS were 0.94 and 0.82, respectively. The findings showed that the subjects reported high-level overall health-informationneeds (mean=2.70, SD=0.44). The top-five information needs were information about the warning signs of cancer (mean=2.77, SD=0.52), cancer-fighting foods (mean=2.76, SD=0.53), cancer prevention (mean=2.74, SD=0.55), cancer risk assessment tools (mean=2.73, SD=0.57), and early detection of cancer (mean=2.72, SD=0.59). The overall mean scores for expectations of service quality were significantly higher than those for perceived service quality (P=0.000) in four dimensions--tangibles (P=0.004), reliability (P=0.000), responsiveness (P=0.004), and empathy (P=0.000). However, assurance did not differ significantly (P=0.110). Therefore, the regular assessment of service quality and information needs is considered to be a means of promoting service quality. It is very important to detect service gaps, leading to further appropriate management strategies and the maintenance of good service quality.