ORIGINAL RESEARCH Patients’ awareness of their rights in a developing country N. Kuzu a, * , A. Ergin b , M. Zencir b a Department of Nursing, Pamukkale University Denizli School of Health, Devlet Hastanesi yanı Denizli, Turkey b Department of Public Health, Pamukkale University Medical Faculty, Denizli, Turkey Received 25 October 2004; received in revised form 9 March 2005; accepted 13 October 2005 Available online 14 February 2006 KEYWORDS Patients’rights; Informed consent; Privacy; Patient access to records; Turkey Summary Aim: to determine the awareness of a regulation on patients’ rights passed in 1998 in Turkey. Methods: all hospitalized patients in the internal medicine and general surgery wards in three large hospitals during the study period were eligible for the study, which was performed in 2001 in the Denizli province, Turkey. The study group consisted of 166 patients. Data were collected during face-to-face interviews using a questionnaire. Results: Only 9% of patients were aware of the regulation about patients’ rights. Most patients were given equal access to health care (91%), benefitted from the capabilities of their selected healthcare institutions (86.7%), and their privacy was protected (86.1%). Those patients who stated that they had not received care in accordance with their rights identified the shortcomings as not receiving written (95.2%) or verbal (53%) information from healthcare professionals, and the failure of healthcare personnel to introduce themselves (75.3%). On most occasions, the patients stated that they were not able to request services as stated in the PRR from healthcare professionals. Conclusion: Few patients knew about the regulation on patients’ rights, indicating a need for extensive education of patients and healthcare professionals. Q 2005 The Royal Institute of Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Legislations on patients’ rights have been passed throughout the globe since the Human Rights Act was published by the United Nations in 1948. 1 Patients’ rights were also addressed in the 1964 Helsinki Declaration on the rights of research subjects, 2 in the 1968 Sydney Declaration on organ transplantations, 3 in the 1977 World Health Organ- ization target decision ‘Health for All in the Year 2000’, and in the 1978 Alma-Ata ‘Basic Health Services’ Declaration. 4 Passing a regulation is not a guarantee for the protection of patients’ rights. Studies from different countries have reported infringement of patients’ Public Health (2006) 120, 290–296 0033-3506/$ - see front matter Q 2005 The Royal Institute of Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2005.10.014 * Corresponding author. Tel.: C90 258 2410576; fax: C90 258 2411005. E-mail address: nkuzu@pamukkale.edu.tr (N. Kuzu).