How Public Trust in Health Care Can Shape Patient Overconsumption in Health Systems? The Missing Links.

Katarzyna Krot,Iga Rudawska

doi:10.3390/ijerph18083860

Abstract

Overconsumption of health care is an ever-present and complex problem in health systems. It is especially significant in countries in transition that assign relatively small budgets to health care. In these circumstances, trust in the health system and its institutions is of utmost importance. Many researchers have studied interpersonal trust. Relatively less attention, however, has been paid to public trust in health systems and its impact on overconsumption. Therefore, this paper seeks to identify and examine the link between public trust and the moral hazard experienced by the patient with regard to health care consumption. Moreover, it explores the mediating role of patient satisfaction and patient non-adherence. For these purposes, quantitative research was conducted based on a representative sample of patients in Poland. Interesting findings were made on the issues examined. Patients were shown not to overconsume health care if they trusted the system and were satisfied with their doctor-patient relationship. On the other hand, nonadherence to medical recommendations was shown to increase overuse of medical services. The present study contributes to the existing knowledge by identifying phenomena on the macro (public trust in health care) and micro (patient satisfaction and non-adherence) scales that modify patient behavior with regard to health care consumption. Our results also provide valuable knowledge for health system policymakers. They can be of benefit in developing communication plans at different levels of local government.

Highlights

Health is commonly perceived as one of the most desirable values
Based on the findings reported in the literature of the English-speaking world that relate mostly to developed countries [63,64] or to the race minorities found within them [65,66], public trust can be claimed to impact on an array of health behaviors
To Hypothesis 1 (H1), we propose five more hypotheses concerning the relationship between public trust and the referents of patient-physician relationships, and their links to overconsumption of health care by patients: Hypothesis 2 (H2)

Summary

Introduction

Health is commonly perceived as one of the most desirable values. It can be treated as an asset forming individual capabilities, or a critical pillar of societal and economic development. To understand the behavioral patterns of health care consumers, it is important the that elements (variables) should be revealed which may affect the doctor-patient interaction and impact on the level of consumption of health care services. Both under-consumption and overconsumption may lead to negative outcomes for the whole health system, disrupting the attainment of its goals. The greatest challenge is in the economic burden that may manifest itself in higher medical costs per patient, inefficient resource allocation, and an ineffective patient eligibility verification process

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion