The role of patient satisfaction assessment in medical audit.

Minor Symptoms Evaluation Profile (MSE-profile) is an instrument for the assessment of subjective CNS-related symptoms and has recently been documented. This self-applied questionnaire includes 24 items and uses a visual analogue scale to record perceived symptoms. Based on a subjective grouping followed by a principal component analysis of the results of 374 individuals to confirm the grouping, 15 out of the 24 items were formed into three dimensions: Contentment (7 items), Vitality (5 items) and Sleep (3 items). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient used to evaluate the internal consistency of these dimensions was 0.81, 0.81 and 0.77, respectively. Compared with the equivalent dimensions of other questionnaires for measurement of health-related quality of life, the dimensions of the MSE-profile were found to be relevant. Furthermore, the MSE-profile showed good discriminative ability to distinguish symptom profiles of patients with other diseases/complaints than hypertension. It can be concluded that the MSE-profile is practically useful, reliable and sensitive enough for the assessment of subjective CNS-related symptoms that might affect the patient's well-being/quality of life.