Trust in the Health System and COVID-19 Treatment

Abstract

COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe at an exponential speed, infecting millions and overwhelming even the most prepared healthcare systems. Concerns are looming that the healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are mostly unprepared to combat the virus because of limited resources. The problems in LMICs are exacerbated by the fact that citizens in these countries generally exhibit low trust in the healthcare system because of its low quality, which could trigger a number of uncooperative behaviors. In this paper, we focus on one such behavior and investigate the relationship between trust in the healthcare system and the probability of potential treatment-seeking behavior upon the appearance of the first symptoms of COVID-19. First, we provide motivating evidence from a unique national online survey administered in Armenia–a post-Soviet LMIC country. We then present results from a large-scale survey experiment in Armenia that provides causal evidence supporting the investigated relationship. Our main finding is that a more trustworthy healthcare system enhances the probability of potential treatment-seeking behavior when observing the initial symptoms.

Relationship Between COVID-19 Threat Beliefs and Individual Differences in Demographics, Personality, and Related Beliefs

“…In line with previous studies, we have found that the overall trust in scientists (Bicchieri et al, 2021;Sturgis et al, 2021) and the overall trust in the political system (Bruine de Schaeffer, 2021) predict COVID-19-related beliefs. In contrast to studies finding that COVID-19 threat beliefs were related to trust in the health system (Udow-Phillips and Lantz, 2020; Antinyan et al, 2021), we did not find evidence for this relationship. However, we found a reliable relationship between beliefs related to vaccination and beliefs related to COVID-19, suggesting that more specific beliefs about the usefulness of health interventions that are also relevant for COVID-19 are better predictors than the generalized trust in the overall health system.…”

“…Rather than modifying their existing beliefs to fit the new facts, people can be prone to motivated reasoning and interpret the new facts differently or disregard them in order to preserve their previous beliefs (Druckman and McGrath, 2019). In particular, people who distrust the health system (Udow-Phillips and Lantz, 2020; Antinyan et al, 2021), scientists (Bicchieri et al, 2021;Sturgis et al, 2021), and the overall political system (Bruine de Schaeffer, 2021) can be more reluctant to believe the official messages about the risk of COVID-19 and less willing to adopt preventative measures such as vaccination. For example, in the United States, changes in political leadership and the related levels of trust in government messaging have been related to changes in beliefs about the risk of COVID-19 and willingness to accept vaccination.…”

“…Furthermore, we expected that COVID-19 threat beliefs will be related to personality factors as operationalized using the HEXACO model (Lazarević et al, 2021;Zettler et al, 2022). Finally, we expected that COVID-19 threat beliefs will be associated with other related beliefs such as trust in the health system, scientists, and the political system (Bruine de Udow-Phillips and Lantz, 2020;Antinyan et al, 2021;Bicchieri et al, 2021;Schaeffer, 2021;Sturgis et al, 2021).…”

Trust in Medicine as a Factor Conditioning Behaviors Recommended by Healthcare Experts during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland

“…Research has also shown that confidence in the government [ 54 ], institutional trust [ 55 ], and healthcare system trust [ 56 , 57 , 58 ] were associated with a higher subordination of the recommended behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also found studies that, like ours, show that trust in medicine (understood as trust in doctors) increases compliance with preventative behavior [ 59 ].…”

Systematic Review of Socio-Emotional Values Within Organizations

“…It is difficult to maintain critical thinking in this case, and often people fail in this task because it is easier to follow emotional thinking (Wynes, 2021;Yu et al, 2021), which has often negatively influenced socio-political decisions, for example, creating and maintaining populist movements, which are stronger in uncertain times (Bone, 2021). Stakeholder accountability moves its actions through a complex situation, especially during an actual socio-economic crisis, where there is a significant impairment in terms of social cohesion and trust between people and institutions (Antinyan et al, 2021;Fikukova et al, 2021;Surina et al, 2021;Ye et al, 2021). The accountability of stakeholders means that a single person or a group of people operate for an individual initiative, without an institutional setting, following their own principles, intrinsic rules, and ethics (Salsbury et al, 2018).…”