Americans and Their Trust in Doctors and Hospitals

A paper from August 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined the results of a survey taken of Americans over the period from April 2020 (at the beginning of the COVID pandemic) through to January 31, 2024.  The paper by Dr. Roy Perlis et al attempts to answer the following question:

 

"How did trust in physicians and hospitals change during the COVID-19 pandemic?"

 

The 24 wave survey was conducted among 443,455 unique respondents residing in the United States aged 18 and older and consisted of 582,634 responses.  The mean age of the respondents was 43.3 years with 65 percent being female and 71.1 percent being White.  The study was undertaken to determine whether trust in physicians and hospitals had changed over the course of the pandemic

  

Throughout modern history, physicians have been highly regarded for their trustworthiness with a 2022 survey reporting that American adults had greater trust in physicians and nurses than any other institution or occupation.  A Gallup poll found that in 2019, medical doctors were trusted to be either very highly or highly honest and ethical by 65 percent of Americans (third highest among all professions) and nurses were trusted to be either very highly or highly honest and ethical by 85 percent of Americans (highest among all professions).

 

Let's go back to the study.  The authors of the JAMA study entitled "Trust in Physicians and Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a 50-State Survey of US Adults" found the following:

1.) the proportion of adults that reported a lot of trust for hospitals and physicians decreased from 71.5 percent in April 2020 to 40.1 percent in January 2024.  Decreased trust was associated with certain demographics including those aged 25 to 64 years of age, female gender, lower educational level, Black race and living in a rural area.  Surprisingly, self-reported political affiliation did not have a meaningful impact on trust levels.

 

Here is a graphic showing the decline in trust in hospitals and physicians over the nearly four year period by gender, race and ethnicity and age:

 

2.) Higher levels of trust in hospitals and physicians was associated with a greater likelihood of being vaccinated for COVID-19.

 

3.) Higher levels of trust in hospitals and physicians was associated with a greater likelihood of being vaccine boosted for COVID-19.

 

Here is a summary graphic showing the association between various demographic features of respondents and how these demographics either do not favour trust or favour trust:

 

Note the following:

1.) respondents between the ages of 25 and 34 tend to trust hospitals and physicians less than their older counterparts.

 

2.) female respondents tend to trust hospitals and physicians less than their male counterparts.

 

3.) respondents with lower educational levels tend to trust hospitals and physicians less than their more educated counterparts.

 

4.) black respondents tend to trust hospitals and physicians less than other races and ethnicities.

 

5.) rural respondents tend to trust hospitals and physicians less than suburban and urban counterparts.

 

Despite the decreased trust in physicians over the pandemic, other studies have discovered that the general public still found physicians and hospitals to be more trustworthy when it came to receiving health care information than all other United States institutions (i.e. government).

Here is a closing quote with my bolds:

 

"Our results cannot establish causation, but in the context of prior studies documenting associations between physician trust and more positive health outcomes, they raise the possibility that the decrease in trust during the pandemic could have long-lasting public health implications. If so, effective interventions aimed at restoring trust could have benefits, not only for future pandemics, but for health in the US more generally, at least in terms of vaccination. In examining reasons for low trust, financial conflicts of interest, a longstanding area of academic investigation in medicine, remain a major factor associated with mistrust, concerns that may have been amplified during the pandemic."

 

From the results of this study, it would appear that the medical profession has a long way to go to regain the trust of the American public after its shameful behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic.  A significant and growing proportion of Americans no longer trust the health care system to look after their best interests, suggesting that governments will have their work cut out for them if they hope to get the public to buy into a wide scale vaccination rollout in the future as they did during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.