Parental satisfaction with neonatal intensive care unit services and associated factors in Ethiopia: systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Background In the context of healthcare, satisfaction is the attainment of adequate or acceptable treatment and serves as both a benchmark for quality and the ultimate objective of providing care. In neonatal care facilities, parent satisfaction is a key measure of the quality of the services offered to the newborns and aids in improving healthcare delivery. This is the first systematic review aiming to address critical knowledge gaps regarding factors influencing parental satisfaction with neonatal intensive care unit services, and determine pooled prevalence in Ethiopia. Methods After comprehensive systematic search for full texts in the English language through an electronic web-based search strategy from databases of PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, African Journals Online, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar, included a total of 8 articles. Checklists from the Joanna Briggs Institute were used to assess the studies’ quality of methodology. STATA version 14 software for windows was used for all statistical analyses and meta-analysis was done using a random-effects method. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to clarify the source of heterogeneity. Results Pooled national level of parents’ satisfaction with neonatal intensive unit service was 57.87% (95% CI (49.99, 65.75%)). Age of respondents and availability of chair were significantly associated with parents’ satisfaction with neonatal intensive unit service. Conclusions and recommendation In our review we found that nearly half of parents expressed dissatisfaction with neonatal intensive unit service, which is high. Age of respondents and availability of chair in neonatal intensive unit waiting area were significantly associated with neonatal intensive unit service. Efforts to enhance parental satisfaction with neonatal intensive unit services are crucial, given that nearly half of parents reported dissatisfaction. Necessary infrastructure should be fulfilled to increase parental satisfaction with neonatal intensive unit service. (PROSPERO) International prospective register of systematic reviews: CRD42023483474