How healthcare structures and communication delivery influence trust: a parallel-group randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background According to recent polling, public trust in the healthcare sector remains low relative to other industries globally. The implications of low healthcare trust permeate throughout the industry in a number of ways, most visibly by discouraging therapy compliance. Methods This study investigated four putative determinants of trust in healthcare-related scenarios: individuals vs. collective groups as communicators of healthcare advice; expert vs. laypeople as providers of healthcare communication; public vs. private healthcare sector; and positive vs. negative information. Two hundred seventy-four participants were recruited via Prolific Academic and were presented with four statements in random order, related to a positive reflection of the public healthcare sector, a negative reflection of the public healthcare sector, a positive reflection of the private healthcare sector and a negative reflection of the private healthcare sector. According to these reflection, participants were repeatedly asked to rate the system on its trustworthiness. Trust outcomes were constructed using a four-dimension framework, consisting of benevolence, reliability, competence and predictability. Results Claims relating to the public sector had a significantly stronger impact on benevolence and reliability than claims relating to the private sector; claims from individuals had a significantly stronger impact on all trust variables than claims from collectives; and claims from laypeople had a significantly greater impact on reliability and competence ratings than claims from experts. Conclusions The findings in this study offer insight into the patterns with which trust decisions are made in healthcare contexts. More importantly, this research offers a novel perspective of how different factors interact to affect the various facets of trust. These results provide a foundation for future study in this evolving area, and offer insights into designing effective communication strategies that cultivate greater levels of individual trust in the healthcare sector.

Will Natural Media Make Online Physicians More Trustworthy? The Effect of Media Naturalness on Patients' Intention to Use HIT

“…The interpersonal trust is mainly reflected in physicianpatient interactions, which would be influenced by physicians' characteristics (e.g., benevolence, competence, integrity, etc.) (Li et al, 2018;Wan et al, 2020;Cantarutti and Pothos, 2021;Gong et al, 2021). Platform trust refers to patients' trust toward platform, which would be affected by blockchain certificates and structure guarantees provided by the platform (Xie et al, 2020;Yoo et al, 2020;Shao et al, 2022), platform reputation (Eastlick et al, 2006;Gong et al, 2021) and platform strength (Li D. et al, 2020).…”

“…Furthermore, patients' needs for information exchange and satisfactory interpersonal communication can be met when they perceive less communication ambiguity from online physicians (Cant, 2009;Zahedi et al, 2016); thus, promoting mutual trust in the doctor-patient relationship. Furthermore, trust toward physicians can increase patients' recognition of the reliability and predictability of online health services (Cantarutti and Pothos, 2021), thus promoting patients' continuance intention of online health services. Accordingly, we propose Hypothesis H5b as follows:…”

“…For example, online physicians' characteristics (such as benevolence, competence, integrity, etc.) would affect patients' trust in doctors (Li et al, 2018;Wan et al, 2020;Cantarutti and Pothos, 2021;Gong et al, 2021). Based on the media naturalness theory, our study investigates how media naturalness would affect the elements of physician-patient communication, then affecting patients' trust toward online physicians.…”

The Individuals’ Willingness to Get the Vaccine for COVID-19 during the Third Wave: A Study on Trust in Mainstream Information Sources, Attitudes and Framing Effect

“…Not only the individual’s trust in the information sources, which can be shaped by whether the information is related to the public or private sector or given by single individuals or group of experts [ 14 ] and the attitudes toward vaccination but also the framing used to display risks and benefits associated with the vaccine is a key determinant of the vaccine decisions [ 15 ]. As prior research in decision-making has highlighted, how the information is presented might influence individual health choices and vaccine behaviors.…”