Age as a Moderator of Health Outcomes and Trust in Physicians and the Healthcare System

Abstract

Trust is an integral part of the healthcare experience. Patient trust is associated with treatment adherence, patient satisfaction, patients engaging in follow-up care, shared decision-making, and positive health-related outcomes (e.g., Gupta et al., 2014; Mohseni & Lindstrom, 2007; Musa et al., 2009; Tam, 2012; Thom, et al., 2004; Trachtenberg et al., 2005). There are several levels of trust discussed in the literature, including interpersonal trust and institutional trust. The current study examined two levels of trust: interpersonal trust in the form of trust in the physician and institutional trust in the form of trust in the healthcare system. The study investigated whether age moderated the relation among these two levels of trust and the selected health outcome variables of self-rated health, patient satisfaction, adherence, patient’s preference for decision-making, and utilization of doctor’s visits, emergency room visits, and hospital admissions. Three hundred ninety-eight English-speaking, community-dwelling adults were recruited to participate in this study via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were administered self-report measures to assess their level of trust and subjective ratings on health outcome variables. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine whether age moderated these relations. Age significantly moderated the relations between trust in physicians and hospital admissions, trust in physicians and patient satisfaction, and trust in the healthcare system and preferred decision making. Findings provided support for the role of age as a moderator of these relations. Future implications of these results are discussed.