Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Sept 4, 2024 2:21:47 GMT
Patient Trust in Physicians, Hospitals Decreased During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Published Sept 3, 2024
In the United States, patient trust in physicians and hospitals decreased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research published in JAMA Network Open.
Distrust in science and medicine has increased in recent years, in part due to the politicization of public health policies and misinformation spread on the internet. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 represented a turning point in the relationship between the public and physicians.
To quantify the change in patient trust in health care professionals and health care systems over the course of the pandemic, researchers analyzed data from 24 waves of a national internet survey conducted by a commercial vendor called PureSpectrum. The survey itself was developed by researchers in the COVID States Project and was sent out every 1 to 2 months beginning April 1, 2020, through January 31, 2024 to adults in the US. To ensure adequate representativeness, quotas were in place for gender, age, race, and ethnicity within each state. To evaluate patient trust, the researchers used responses from survey questions like “How much do you trust the following people and organizations to do what is right?” The researchers also collected information on SARS-CoV-2 vaccination status.
In total, there were 582,634 responses across 24 survey waves, with 443,455 individual respondents. The respondents had a mean (SD) age of 43.3 (16.6) years, 65.0% were women, and 71.1% were White.
Whether interventions to restore trust could increase compliance with vaccination and other positive health behaviors merits further investigation.
The researchers found that the proportion of adults reporting a lot of trust for physicians and hospitals decreased from 71.5% (95% CI, 70.7%-72.2%) in April 2020 to 40.1% (95% CI, 39.4%-40.7%) in January 2024. A number of patient characteristics were found to be independently associated with decreased trust in physicians and hospitals, such as age (25 to 64 years), female gender, lower educational level, lower income, Black race, and living in a rural area.
After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, the researchers also found that higher levels of trust were associated with significantly higher odds of being vaccinated. Relative to individuals with no trust in physicians and hospitals, vaccination was more likely among patients with a little trust (odds ratio [OR], 1.38; 95% CI, 1.16-1.65), some trust (OR, 2.48; 95%CI, 2.12-2.90), and a lot of trust (OR, 4.94; 95% CI, 4.21-5.80). These results were similar when evaluating SARS-CoV-2 vaccine boosters as the outcome rather than overall vaccination status.
A subset of respondents was then asked to explain their levels of trust. Among respondents with the 2 lowest levels of self-reported trust (n=200), the most common factors informing their response were financial motives over patient care (35.0%), poor quality of care and negligence (27.5%), the influence of external entities and agendas (13.5%), and discrimination and bias (4.5%).
These findings quantify that patient trust in physicians and hospitals decreased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lower level of trust was associated with a decreased likelihood of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. “Whether interventions to restore trust could increase compliance with vaccination and other positive health behaviors merits further investigation,” the researchers concluded.
Study limitations include the reliance on a single item to evaluate trust, an inability to separate trust in physicians from trust in health systems given the survey question’s phrasing, and the inability to determine causality.
Disclosure: One study author declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of authors’ disclosures.
This article originally appeared on Psychiatry Advisor
References:
Perlis RH, Ognyanova K, Uslu A, et al. Trust in physicians and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic in a 50-state survey of US adults. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(7):e2424984. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24984
In the United States, patient trust in physicians and hospitals decreased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research published in JAMA Network Open.
Distrust in science and medicine has increased in recent years, in part due to the politicization of public health policies and misinformation spread on the internet. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 represented a turning point in the relationship between the public and physicians.
To quantify the change in patient trust in health care professionals and health care systems over the course of the pandemic, researchers analyzed data from 24 waves of a national internet survey conducted by a commercial vendor called PureSpectrum. The survey itself was developed by researchers in the COVID States Project and was sent out every 1 to 2 months beginning April 1, 2020, through January 31, 2024 to adults in the US. To ensure adequate representativeness, quotas were in place for gender, age, race, and ethnicity within each state. To evaluate patient trust, the researchers used responses from survey questions like “How much do you trust the following people and organizations to do what is right?” The researchers also collected information on SARS-CoV-2 vaccination status.
In total, there were 582,634 responses across 24 survey waves, with 443,455 individual respondents. The respondents had a mean (SD) age of 43.3 (16.6) years, 65.0% were women, and 71.1% were White.
Whether interventions to restore trust could increase compliance with vaccination and other positive health behaviors merits further investigation.
The researchers found that the proportion of adults reporting a lot of trust for physicians and hospitals decreased from 71.5% (95% CI, 70.7%-72.2%) in April 2020 to 40.1% (95% CI, 39.4%-40.7%) in January 2024. A number of patient characteristics were found to be independently associated with decreased trust in physicians and hospitals, such as age (25 to 64 years), female gender, lower educational level, lower income, Black race, and living in a rural area.
After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, the researchers also found that higher levels of trust were associated with significantly higher odds of being vaccinated. Relative to individuals with no trust in physicians and hospitals, vaccination was more likely among patients with a little trust (odds ratio [OR], 1.38; 95% CI, 1.16-1.65), some trust (OR, 2.48; 95%CI, 2.12-2.90), and a lot of trust (OR, 4.94; 95% CI, 4.21-5.80). These results were similar when evaluating SARS-CoV-2 vaccine boosters as the outcome rather than overall vaccination status.
A subset of respondents was then asked to explain their levels of trust. Among respondents with the 2 lowest levels of self-reported trust (n=200), the most common factors informing their response were financial motives over patient care (35.0%), poor quality of care and negligence (27.5%), the influence of external entities and agendas (13.5%), and discrimination and bias (4.5%).
These findings quantify that patient trust in physicians and hospitals decreased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lower level of trust was associated with a decreased likelihood of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. “Whether interventions to restore trust could increase compliance with vaccination and other positive health behaviors merits further investigation,” the researchers concluded.
Study limitations include the reliance on a single item to evaluate trust, an inability to separate trust in physicians from trust in health systems given the survey question’s phrasing, and the inability to determine causality.
Disclosure: One study author declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of authors’ disclosures.
This article originally appeared on Psychiatry Advisor
References:
Perlis RH, Ognyanova K, Uslu A, et al. Trust in physicians and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic in a 50-state survey of US adults. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(7):e2424984. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24984