Lifestyle Quality Clinical Counseling for Patients with Non-Communicable Diseases Attending First Cluster Primary Healthcare Centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Rawan Alshammari, Lojain Alsubhi, Alhanouf AlJabri, Saleh AlsuwaytAbstract
Background:
One of the challenges facing the global health system is the high prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). As predicted by the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of NCDs’ estimated deaths will rise to 55 million by 2030. This study aimed to improve the clinical counseling for patients with NCDs at the First Cluster Primary Health CarE Centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Methodology:
We used a validated questionnaire to conduct a descriptive cross-sectional study of patients with NCDs visiting the First Cluster PHCs. The study included 497 participents. They were randomly selected from patients who met the inclusion criteria after providing verbal consent to answer the questionnaire survey. The data were collected and statistically analyzed. We studied any significant differences between the ordinal variables of the participants’ quality scores and their demographic characteristics.
Results:
Most of the participants (79%) received clinical counseling and 66% were physicians. Almost half of the participants reported that they consumed an unhealthy diet, were obese, and engaged in limited physical activity. The questionnaire results showed that the clinical counseling sessions were rated highly for satisfaction in both content and implementation of the counseling. Older participants and those with a high school education provided higher median scores, which had statistically significant difference from the scores of other educational levels (
Conclusion:
The clinical counseling from patients who sought health care at the Riyadh First Cluster PHC is of high quality, which is a priority according to Saudi Arabia’s Vision for 2030.