New research from the University of Oregon reveals that a person鈥檚 political beliefs affect the trust they have in their own doctors and health care providers.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, UO political scientist started thinking about health and politics. Witnessing the partisan response to masking and vaccines, he wondered just how far distrust in medicine might extend.
O鈥橞rian conducted surveys, randomly sampling nearly 2,000 people. One question that was asked was, 鈥淲ho did you vote for in 2020?鈥� Another question was, 鈥淗ave you seen a primary care provider in the last 12 months?鈥�
O鈥橞rian revealed the findings: 鈥淧eople on the right are reporting less trust in their own primary care provider, less trust in their child鈥檚 pediatrician, less trust in the medical staff in an emergency room than those on the political left,鈥� he said.
If people don鈥檛 trust health professionals, it鈥檚 a lot harder to solve health problems. This division in trust has significant implications for health outcomes as it affects patients鈥� willingness to follow medical guidance, which is crucial for managing health conditions and improving life expectancy.
The U.S. in the early 2020s, which the CDC says 鈥渃an primarily be attributed to deaths from the pandemic.鈥�
At the start of his research, O鈥橞rian said he looked at some older, publicly available data to get a baseline. In the 2010s, O鈥橞rian said trust in major institutions like the military, education and the press was divided along party lines. But there was always one exception: medicine.
鈥淎nd then in 2020, that broke along partisan lines,鈥� he said. 鈥漇o, the Democrats became more confident, more trusting in medicine that Republicans. In the paper we talk about it [like this,] 鈥楥OVID interrupted one of the last bipartisan consensuses in the U.S.鈥樷��
O鈥橞rian argued that the partisan divide in trust in personal doctors was a response to COVID-19, a COVID spillover effect, if you will.
Doctors are acutely aware that distrust in health care has been growing. Where once the predictors for distrust of one鈥檚 personal health care provider might have been race, education, age or having health insurance, now the strongest predictor is who the patient voted for in the 2020 election.
鈥淚 think that is really compelling,鈥� O鈥橞rian said.
O鈥橞rian鈥檚 future research will explore the factors that inspire patients鈥� trust in their doctors. He also will investigate what the trust gap in doctors means for health outcomes and if the data show different health outcomes for Republicans and Democrats.
Last May, Neil O鈥橞rian was honored as a . He co-authored the research paper with independent researcher Thomas Bradley Kent. It recently appeared in the .