Study explores patient trust in physicians

Trust in one’s physician drives positive health practices. In a scoping review, SUNY Poly Professor of Sociology Dr. Linda R. Weber discovered new developments in the measurement of trust, identified those measures of trust that have known reliability and validity, and compared those instruments’ conceptualizations, dimensions, and indicators. The paper is published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Weber explains that 10 dimensions emerged from the study: fidelity, technical competence, communicative competence, interpersonal competence (i.e., caring), honesty, confidentiality, global, behavioral, fairness, and system trust/accountability.

In addition, these findings provide the foundation for a theoretical integration of these dimensions that allows for a unified approach to measurement so that we may better understand what trust is, what influences trust, and how trust impacts health care service delivery successes.

Dr. Weber conducted an electronic search of three databases (PubMed, SOCAB, and PsycINFO).

Two reviewers screened those selected studies and identified the following six key measurement tools, of which three had shorter, more abbreviated derivatives: the Trust in Physician Scale and its modification, the Wake Forest Physician Trust Scale and its short form, the Health Care Relationship Trust Scale and its refinement, the Trust in Oncologist Scale and its shortened form, the Trust in Health Care Providers Scale, and the Trust in My Doctor Scale.

Of these six distinct tools, only the Trust in Oncologist Scale was developed and validated in non-U.S. populations. Also, interpersonal competence and fairness emerged as newer dimensions that deserve further study.

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SUNY Polytechnic Institute