JAMA Netw Open

What impact did the pandemic have on trust in health care?

August 2, 2024

In every sociodemographic group, trust in physicians and hospitals appeared to decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic. Restoring trust may represent a public health imperative, as lower levels of trust were associated with lesser likelihood of being vaccinated.

• In this survey study, researchers examined data from 24 waves of an internet survey conducted between April 1, 2020, and January 31, 2024, among 443,455 unique respondents (mean age, 43.3 years; 65% female) residing in the US, with state-level representative quotas for race and ethnicity, age, and gender to determine if there were changes in adults’ trust in physicians and hospitals over the course of the pandemic.
• Overall, the proportion of adults reporting a great deal of trust for physicians and hospitals decreased from 71.5% in April 2020 to 40.1% in January 2024.
• Factors associated with lower trust as of spring and summer 2023 included being 25 to 64 years of age, female gender, lower educational level, lower income, Black race, and living in a rural setting. These associations persisted even after controlling for partisanship.
• Greater trust was associated with greater likelihood of vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 4.94) or influenza (aOR, 5.09) and receiving a SARS-CoV-2 booster (aOR, 3.62).

Source:

Perlis RH, et al. (2024, July 1). JAMA Netw Open. Trust in Physicians and Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a 50-State Survey of US Adults. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39083270/