Researching medical trust in the United States
Journal of Health Organization and Management
ISSN: 1477-7266
Article publication date: 1 September 2006
Abstract
Purpose
This article reviews research in the USA bearing on trust in physicians and medical institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
This article provides a conceptual analysis, and general review of the literature.
Findings
Empirical research of medical trust is burgeoning in the USA, and a fairly clear conceptual model of interpersonal physician trust has emerged. However, most studies focus on individual patients and their physicians, due to the highly individualistic attitudes that prevail in the USA. Lacking are studies of more social dimensions of trust in broader medical institutions. A conceptual model of trust is presented to help draw these relevant distinctions, and to review the US literature. Also presented are the full set of trust scales, developed at Wake Forest University, which follow this conceptual model. These conceptual categories may differ, however, in other languages and cultures.
Originality/value
The considerable body of research in the USA on patients' trust in individual physicians should help inform and focus international efforts to study social trust in medical institutions.
Keywords
Citation
Hall, M.A. (2006), "Researching medical trust in the United States", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 20 No. 5, pp. 456-467. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777260610701812
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited