Saudi Journal of Business and Management Studies (SJBMS)
Volume-2 | Issue-06 | 621-632
Original Research Article
Demographic Determinants of Inpatient Complaining Behaviour
Dr. Fezeena Khadir, Dr. R. Swamynathan
Published : June 29, 2017
Abstract
Demographic factors are the socioeconomic characteristics of a population expressed statistically such as age,
sex, education level, income level, marital status, occupation, religion, etc. The actions resorted to by customers after a
dissatisfaction episode have always been a topic of research. The broad area covered in this study is consumer
satisfaction, dissatisfaction and complaining behaviour. The consumers considered are the inpatients who were
dissatisfied with any service during their hospital stay. This study is an attempt to identify the type of demographics of
inpatients who have the propensity to complain post dissatisfaction with the hospital services. A total of 312 inpatients
who were admitted and discharged from 100+ bedded private and cooperative hospitals across nine districts belonging to
northern, central and southern Kerala were surveyed. Their action after being dissatisfied was studied with a dichotomous
scale and thus categorized as either complainers or non-complainers. Data pertaining to a total of eight sociodemographic variables were collected with categorical scales whereas their length of hospital stay and self assessment of
medical awareness was collected with a continuous scale. The study revealed that except occupation, none of the other
variables had an effect on the complaining behaviours of inpatients.