Public trust of physicians in China improved since the COVID-19 pandemic Began.

RATIONALE: Public trust in physicians had declined in China for decades before the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline physicians have experienced high work volume despite a high risk of COVID-19 infection. The willingness of physicians to treat COVID patients with a high risk of exposure to the infection may have improved public trust in physicians. OBJECTIVE: This study analyzes how public trust in physicians has changed since the pandemic started using a nationally representative survey. METHODS: We used the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), with 179,123 respondents 10 years or older who were eligible to answer the question on public trust in physicians from 2012 to 2020. Public trust has been measured by an 11-point Likert scale. A quasi pre-post study design using a segmented regression impact model was used to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public trust in physicians. RESULTS: At the start of the observation period, the average public trust score was 6.86 out of 10.00. The immediate unadjusted change of mean score for public trust during COVID-19 was significantly higher (Coef. = 0.361; 95% CI = 0.359, 0.364). Moreover, a significant increase in the unadjusted trend during the COVID-19 pandemic was observed in the mean score for public trust (Coef. = 0.005; 95% CI = 0.004, 0.006). The results were similar to the estimates obtained when we adjusted for demographic characteristics and health status. CONCLUSIONS: The mean score for public trust increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study provides a new perspective on restoring public trust in physicians, a significant concern of the Chinese healthcare system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social and mainstream media helped to establish the "good doctor" image, which may have improved patients' trust in physicians. Improving health literacy through effective communication and education may help increase public trust in physicians.

Social implications of Covid-19: Its impact on general trust, political trust, and trust in physicians in China.

Motivated by current debates over the relationship between epidemic and trust, this paper estimates the short-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on general trust, political trust, and trust in physicians in China. Using an individual-level national longitude dataset, results from the Difference-in-Difference estimation show that greater exposure to Covid-19 risks significantly decreased general and political trust among the Chinese population, except for the younger generation (age 8-22). Higher exposure to Covid-19 in malleable ages of trust formation (age 8-22) may worsen individuals' general trust but improve their trust in local officials and physicians. Results from heterogeneity tests reveal that Covid-19 exacerbated general trust among the vulnerable groups, whereas their political trust was stable.

Investigating the Relationships Between Public Health Literacy and Public Trust in Physicians in China's Control of COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objective: Public trust in physicians and public health literacy (HL) are important factors that ensure the effectiveness of health-care delivery, particularly that provided during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This study investigates HL as a predictor of public trust in physicians in China's ongoing efforts to control COVID-19. Methods: Data were gathered in February 2020 during the peak of the disease in China. Based on Nutbeam's conceptualization of HL, we measure HL vis-à-vis COVID-19 by using a six-item scale that includes two items each for functional, interactive, and critical HL. Trust in physicians was measured by assessing physicians' capability to diagnose COVID-19. A rank-sum test and ordinal logit regression modeling were used to analyze the data. Results: Two key findings: (a) trust in physician handling of treatment for COVID-19 is reported by about 74% of respondents; and (b) five of the six HL measures are positive predictors of public trust in physician treatment of the disease, with functional HL1 having the highest level of such association (coefficient 0.285, odds ratio 1.33%, p < 0.01). Conclusions: Improving public HL is important for better public-physician relationships, as well as for nations' efforts to contain the pandemic, serving as a possible behavioral, non-clinical antidote to COVID-19. Being confronted with the unprecedented virus, humans need trust. Health education and risk communication can improve public compliance with physicians' requirements and build a solid foundation for collective responses.

The Credibility of Health Information Sources as Predictors of Attitudes toward Vaccination-The Results from a Longitudinal Study in Poland.

BACKGROUND: The research focused on the relationships between attitudes towards vaccination and the trust placed in different sources of information (science, experts and the information available on the Internet) before and during COVID-19. METHOD: A longitudinal design was applied with the first measurement in February 2018 (N = 1039). The second measurement (N = 400) was carried out in December 2020 to test if the pandemic influenced the trust in different sources of information. RESULTS: The final analyses carried out on final sample of 400 participants showed that there has been no change in trust in the Internet as a source of knowledge about health during the pandemic. However, the trust in science, physicians, subjective health knowledge, as well as the attitude towards the vaccination has declined. Regression analysis also showed that changes in the level of trust in physicians and science were associated with analogous (in the same direction) changes in attitudes toward vaccination. The study was also focused on the trust in different sources of health knowledge as possible predictors of willingness to be vaccinated against SARS-nCoV-2. However, it appeared that the selected predictors explained a small part of the variance. This suggests that attitudes toward the new COVID vaccines may have different sources than attitudes toward vaccines that have been known to the public for a long time.

Measuring Patient Trust in Public versus Private Physicians in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

BACKGROUND: This study aims to assess and compare patient trust in public vs private physicians and to determine the factors that can affect the level of trust in the context of the KSA. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the KSA to assess patient trust in physicians. A questionnaire was administered in both Arabic and English to patients above 18 years of age via online channels. RESULTS: A statistically significant difference was found between the level of trust in public vs private physicians, where the public physicians showed higher patients' trust scores compared to private physicians, where the mean was 2.51 (SD=0.60) and 2.29 (SD=0.56), respectively, P-value<0.001. A statistically significant difference was also found between self-assessment health status (SAHS) groups (F(3)=11.429, P=0.010). Other factors were not significantly associated. CONCLUSION: This study found that public physicians engender a higher level of patient trust than private physicians. A further qualitative study should be conducted in the future to investigate the reasons behind the high trust in public physicians in the KSA. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The results of this study open doors for new investigations that might result in the implementation of new interventions to promote patient trust in the healthcare journey in KSA.