Citizens Trust in Physicians – the Moderating Effects of Health Care System

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 6. Attitudes Toward Medical Professionals

Abstract

In this article, I investigated the relationship between individual socio-economic characteristics and trust in physicians as well as that between the institutional set-up of healthcare systems and patterns of public trust in physicians. I used the 2011 International Social Survey Program data from 31 countries (N=46,679) and specified hierarchical linear models with macro-micro level interactions in order to learn how the health care system set-up affects satisfaction at the individual level. Consistent with previous research, I found trust in physicians is not only relevant to trust in the health care system but also to individual socio-economic characteristics. At the country level, National Health Service system is positively associated with trust in physicians. Further, NHS conditions the institutional trust and interpersonal trust link, such that the positive relationship between trust in the health care system and trust in physicians is stronger in countries with NHS system. Two important conclusions were draw from the findings. First, the key factor that influences trust in physicians is the relationship between the health care system set-up and the medical profession. Second, future research needs to pay attention to the effect of on-going public discourse on health care system related issues.

Author

• Yaqi Yuan, SUNY at Buffalo