The page number in the footer is not for bibliographic referencingwww.tandfonline.com/ojfp 50 RESEARCH ARTICLE ABSTRACTS South African Family Practice is co-published by Medpharm Publications, NISC (Pty) Ltd and Cogent, Taylor & Francis Group S Afr Fam Pract ISSN 2078-6190 EISSN 2078-6204 © 2016 The Author(s) RESEARCH South African Family Practice 2016; 58(3):87–93 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20786190.2016.1177977 Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 Patient satisfaction with medical consultations among adults attending Mulago hospital assessment centre Angella Kabatooroa*  , Fred Ndobolia and Jane Namatovua  a Department of Family Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda *Corresponding author, email: kabatooro@gmail.com Background: Patient satisfaction is known to positively influence patients’ compliance with medical advice. In Africa, and specifically Uganda, this interaction has rarely been put to scientific inquiry. This study aimed to determine the level of patient satisfaction and identify factors influencing satisfaction with medical consultations among adults attending Mulago Assessment Centre. Methods: This was a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study where 384 respondents were interviewed using a structured questionnaire adapted from the Medical Interview Satisfaction Scale (MISS-21) with a four-point Likert scale. Patient satisfaction was measured using four dimensions namely: information provision, clinicians’ communication skills, perceived consulting time and patient’s confidence in the clinician. Respondents’ mean scores were categorised as satisfied or dissatisfied. Multivariate linear regression analysis assessed the effect of independent variables on the regression factor score of the dependent variable. Significance level was set at p < 0.05. Final data analysis was done using STATA version 11.0. Results: Of the sample, 53.9% were satisfied with the medical consultation. Patients’ average scores showed lowest satisfaction for information provision (2.7 points) compared with communication skills (3.22 points), patient confidence in the clinicians (3.22 points) and consultation time (3.05 points). Being older, employed, living further away from the health centre and frequently visiting the centre were positively associated with patient satisfaction. Conclusions: Patient satisfaction was largely affected by interpersonal factors. This highlights the need for training of clinicians on the importance of adequate information provision, good communication skills and technical competences like thorough examination of patients and relieving worries about illness during the consultation. Keywords: medical consultations, patient satisfaction, patient–clinician interaction Background As the quality of health care improves, utilisation of health services increases.1–3 To achieve high quality, the World Health Organization now recommends a ‘people-centred’ approach to health care whereby the patient is a whole person with multidimensional needs as opposed to only managing their disease condition.4 One way of assessing quality of health care is through patients’ satisfaction with the services they receive.5, 6 An important aspect of health care services that influences health outcomes is the patient–clinician interaction in the medical consultation.1, 7–9 There is documented evidence of a positive relationship between a patient’s consultation experience and his/her actual health outcomes.10–12 There is also a positive influence between effective communication during medical consultations and patient adherence to scheduled appointments and other clinician instructions.12, 13 Improvement in the quality of clinician–patient interactions can therefore result in better patient care and help patients adapt to illness and treatment.14 Studies done in Africa found patient satisfaction with physician interaction to be generally low at 63.3% and 62.6% respectively.7, 9 In Uganda, a study at Mulago National Referral and Teaching Hospital found satisfaction with general services in outpatient clinics to be as low as 54%.15 Few studies in Uganda have, however, assessed satisfaction with aspects of the medical consultation, yet this would be one way of generating evidence to be used to better health outcomes.16 Patient satisfaction can refer to the degree to which the patient’s experience with the clinician meets their expectations during the consultation.17–19 In this study, patient satisfaction referred to the degree to which the consultation met the patient’s expectations with regard to the effectiveness of the interaction and efficiency in which care was given. This study measured patients’ satisfaction and its influencing factors using four dimensions of the medical consultation, namely: information provision, clinicians’ communication skills, perceived consulting time and patient’s confidence in the clinician among adults attending Mulago Assessment Centre. Methods Study setting The study was conducted in the adult clinic at Mulago Assessment Centre (MAC) located in Mulago National Referral and Teaching Hospital (MNRTH) situated in Kampala Uganda during February 2, 2015 to February 28, 2015. The adult clinic receives a high number of patients and, according to hospital records, 78,192 in the year 2012 and 56,328 in year 2013. It is the first contact clinic for both referred and non-referred patients visiting the hospital. During their time at the centre, patients consulted with the clinician after which those with severe or complicated conditions were admitted through the emergency units and wards while others were discharged from the centre. The outpatient clinic at the centre opens from 8 am to 5 pm on weekdays and Saturdays and is closed on Sundays and public holidays. The study population comprised adult patients aged ≥ 18 years who attended the general outpatient clinic at MAC during the period of this research and consented to participate in it. We excluded patients who were severely ill and required admission, those whose consultation consisted mostly of interaction South African Family Practice is co-published by Medpharm Publications, NISC (Pty) Ltd and Cogent, Taylor & Francis Group South African Family Practice 2016; 58(3):80–86 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20786190.2016.1167311 Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 S Afr Fam Pract ISSN 2078-6190 EISSN 2078-6204 © 2016 The Author(s) RESEARCH Non-fatal injuries of interpersonal violence at the Leratong Provincial Hospital, South Africa Saimen Amashneea, Gordon Guinevereb and Govender Indiranc* aDepartment of Forensic Medicine, Aurum Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa b Forensic Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa c Family Medicine, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria, South Africa *Corresponding author, email: indiran.govender@gmail.com Background: Interpersonal violence is a global health issue. More than 1.6 million people die annually as a result of violence. Injured survivors suffer from a range of physical, sexual, reproductive and mental health problems. The aim of this study is to describe the trends and profile of violence-related injuries from hospital records of an urban emergency department and crisis centre in South Africa. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted by reviewing patient files at Leratong Hospital. Relevant clinical information such as victim’s age and gender; time, day of hospital attendance; nature of injury; presence/absence of alcohol; and nature of weapon was extracted. Results: Leratong Hospital manages many patients with injuries due to interpersonal violence throughout the year, with an increase in May, November and December. Higher numbers of patients present in the last week of the month, and on Saturdays and Sundays. Victims were predominantly male (64%), except for sexual assault where the victims were females. Females also suffered more blunt injuries than penetrating injuries. Blunt injuries were the most frequent type of injury although over the weekend males sustained more penetrating injuries than blunt injuries. Young males were the main victims of interpersonal violence. Conclusion: This study highlights a trend where young adults, especially males, are noted to be significantly affected by interpersonal violence. Keywords: emergency unit, glass bottle injuries, interpersonal violence, non-fatal, sexual assault Introduction Interpersonal violence is a major health issue, and the injuries are potentially avoidable via intervention strategies.1 Interpersonal violence is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in, or has a likelihood of resulting in injury, death, sexual health problems, psychological harm, mal-development or deprivation.2,3 From this definition it can be seen that the effects are far reaching. More than 1.6 million people die each year as a result of interpersonal violence. Interpersonal violence has cost South Africa (SA) around 1.0 million (6.5%) of all disability life years.4 The costs of health care due to these injuries negatively affect economic growth.5 Being a young male has been identified as a risk factor for violence6 with male homicide rates being about three times that of females.3 For every young person killed by violence an estimated further 20% to 40% of victims sustain injuries that require treatment in a hospital.3 There is an increase in violence-related injuries over weekends, with a decrease towards midweek.7,8 Some studies indicate a seasonal variation explained by the increase in social interaction during the warmer periods, thus resulting in more violence- related injuries.9 However, a study in the United Kingdom found no seasonal pattern in interpersonal violence.7 Particular points in the year, public holidays, pay dates and sports events have an increased number of interpersonal violence incidents.7 During intimate partner violence and sexual assault, feet, objects and fists are most frequently used, while in the case of individual violence weapons such as knives and firearms are used.3 Male and female victims present with different types of injuries.10,11 Contusions are more common in females because women are subjected to blunt trauma, strangulation or being physically forced against a wall or floor.10 Fractures sustained during an assault are commonly nasal (29%), dental (27%), mandibular (6%) and zygoma bones (3%).10 Wounds of the upper limbs have been described as being probable defensive wounds; studies have shown that predominantly females incurred injuries on the upper limbs.10,11 Burn injuries due to interpersonal violence are common in developing countries.12,13 Alcohol is a risk factor for violent behaviour.14 SA has been described as having the highest rates of interpersonal violence-related burden in the world.15 Audits of injuries in SA showed a male predominance of patients presenting to the emergency department with violence-related injuries.13 In Gauteng injuries from violence predominantly occurred on Saturdays and Sundays.16,17 Violent behaviour was also noted to be frequent during festive periods and often occurred in public places.18 Violent deaths in SA were found to occur chiefly between 20h00 and 01h00 (27.2%), or between 01h00 and 03h00 (10.6%).8,16,19 Recent studies on deaths due to interpersonal violence in Gauteng show an increase in violent deaths over the months of August, September and December.16,20,21 South Africa’s homicide rates peak in males aged S Afr Fam Pract 2015; DOI:10.1080/20786190.2016.1167311 S Afr Fam Pract 2015; DOI:10.1080/20786190.2016.1177977 Abstract (Full text available online at www.tandfonline.com/ojfp) Abstract (Full text available online at www.tandfonline.com/ojfp)