Patient Trust in Healthcare Declined During COVID-19 Pandemic
Patient trust in healthcare providers significantly declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, a trend that some experts believe could threaten public health. New data published in JAMA Network Open outlines the negative impact the pandemic had on patient trust levels. Patient Trust Tanked in Healthcare During COVID.
The study, which analyzed survey results collected between April 2020 and January 2024, revealed a 30 percentage point drop in self-reported patient trust. Factors such as age, gender (specifically female), lower educational attainment, lower income, Black race, and living in rural areas were associated with lower trust levels, according to the researchers.
These findings come as the healthcare industry examines the broader implications of the pandemic. The focus on patient trust is crucial because of the significant role healthcare providers play in public health and the profound impact the pandemic had on societal attitudes.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, medicine and public health became politicized, with the internet amplifying public figures and even some physicians encouraging distrust in public health experts and scientists,” the investigators wrote. “As such, the pandemic may have represented a turning point in trust, with a profession previously seen as trustworthy increasingly subject to doubt.”
The data, drawn from 24 waves of surveys involving more than 443,000 individuals over age 18, showed that healthcare professionals began the pandemic with high trust ratings—71.5% of individuals reported trust in physicians and hospitals. However, by January 2024, this number had fallen to 40.1%.
The decline in trust could have serious repercussions for public health. Lower patient trust was linked to a reduced likelihood of receiving flu or COVID-19 vaccinations.
Patient Trust Tanked in Healthcare During COVID
“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,” the researchers explained.
Conversely, higher levels of trust were associated with healthier behaviors, particularly the receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine, flu shots, and COVID-19 boosters.
To address this issue, the healthcare sector should focus on reaffirming patient trust in physicians and hospitals. However, this may be a challenging task. A previous Cochrane review found that no intervention meaningfully changed trust in physicians, despite numerous efforts that generally had modest effects.
“A better understanding of groups exhibiting particularly low trust, and the factors associated with that diminished trust, may be valuable in guiding future intervention development and deployment,” the researchers suggested.
These findings contrast sharply with the early stages of the pandemic, including the COVID-19 vaccine rollout when public health experts touted doctors as among the most trusted COVID-19 messengers.
The study could not pinpoint a specific reason for the loss of patient trust, noting that it was not linked to political affiliation nor fully explained by a lack of trust in science. This indicates that there was something particular about healthcare itself that contributed to the decline in trust during the pandemic.
Further research is necessary to uncover more trends among individuals whose trust levels decreased during the pandemic, the researchers recommended.
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