OBJECTIVES: To assess health care patterns and patient satisfaction with health care systems among six European nations. METHODS: TNS European Healthcare Panel of individuals in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK and the Netherlands were surveyed in 2007 to assess health care patterns and disease burden at national level. The data is representative of population gender and age in respective countries, ensured by sampling and intensive panel management. The survey collected information on health conditions, quality of life, health care-utilization and satisfaction with health care system. RESULTS: Approximately 175,000 individuals completed the survey, with equal male/female representation. Pain(>83,300), Allergy(>53,100), Migraine(>38,400), Sleeping problems(>35,900), Skin-disease(>35,800), Gastrointestinal-disease(>34,000), Depression(>31,200), High blood-pressure(>22,800), Urinary-problems(>20,200) and High-cholesterol(>19,200) were the top-10 reported ailments. Across the countries, 49.9% self-diagnosed a health condition (range: 37.5%(Netherlands) to 59.5%(Germany)), whereas 13.3% (range: 8.4%(Italy) to 19.1%(Netherlands)) and 19.4% (range: 8.8%(UK) to 24.7%(Germany)) reported Primary Care Physician and Specialist as primary source of diagnosis. Correspondingly, 34.3% (range: 20.1%(Spain) to 59.0%(UK)) reported self-medication, while 26.3% (range: 20.7%(Italy) to 34.1%(France)), 28.8% (range: 8.1%(UK) to 41.2%(France)) and 6.3% (range: 3.8%(Netherlands) to 11.6%(Italy) reported being treated by Primary Care Physician/Specialist/Hospital Clinic respectively. Overall, 71.6% (range: 57.6%(UK) to 82.4%(France)), 36.0% (range: 23.6%(Spain) to 58.5%(UK)), 12.9% (range: 3.7%(Netherlands) to 17.7%(France)), 5.4% (range: 2.8%(Netherlands) to 7.5%(UK)) and 9.1% (range: 7.7%(Italy) to 12.3%(UK)) were treated with prescription-medications, OTC, plant-based-pharmaceuticals, alternative-therapeutic-options, and other products respectively. Satisfaction with health care-system varied dramatically: 49% very-satisfied/satisfied (range: 26%(Italy) to 66%(France)); 17% Neutral (range: 7%(France/Netherlands) to 27%(Italy)) and 34% somewhat/very-dissatisfied (range: 27%(France) to 47%(Italy)). CONCLUSIONS: Patient satisfaction with health care system appears to be low and reports of self-diagnosis and self-medication are high in the countries. This highlights the increasing importance of patient involvement in health care and treatment and need for integrating patients into health care processes in various forms to alleviate health care burden (clinical/economic/humanistic) in respective geographies.