OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between general health status and patient satisfaction by conducting a meta-analysis on two previously conducted studies. METHODS: Data collected from two cross-sectional studies performed in 1997 and 2001 were pooled. Data collected in 1997 was obtained from 737 patients taking a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor selected randomly from a prescription claims database of a managed care company in Utah. Data collected in 2001 was obtained randomly from 443 patients filling prescriptions at 10 pharmacies located in the Houston, Texas. General health status was measured using the SF-12 scale. Patient satisfaction with the services provided by the health plan was measured using an eight item scale. The satisfaction scale across the two data sets was standardized to a 0-100 scale, where a score of 100 was considered highly satisfied. Data were coded and analyzed to report descriptive and correlation analyses. RESULTS: The pooled dataset resulted in 1180 observations. The mean age of the respondents was 47.02 ± 11.41 years (range 10 to 82) of which majority were females (72.6%). Data showed that the respondents had low physical composite scores (PCS) (48.34 ± 10.08) and mental composite scores (MCS) (46.39 ± 11.04) on the SF-12 scale. The mean patient satisfaction score was 71.18 (± 17.89). Correlation analysis indicated there was no association of either the PCS or the MCS with overall patient satisfaction scores (p>0.05). However, there was a positive association of individual items like health coverage provided by the plan and out of pocket expenses paid by patient for health services with the PCS (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that general health status and patient satisfaction are mutually exclusive variables. Further research is need to understanding which attributes of patient satisfaction are correlated with general health status.