Abstract
Objective: Public trust in physicians and public health literacy (HL) are important factors that ensure the effectiveness of health-care delivery, particularly that provided during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This study investigates HL as a predictor of public trust in physicians in China's ongoing efforts to control COVID-19.Methods: Data were gathered in February 2020 during the peak of the disease in China. Based on Nutbeam's conceptualization of HL, we measure HL vis-à-vis COVID-19 by using a six-item scale that includes two items each for functional, interactive, and critical HL. Trust in physicians was measured by assessing physicians' capability to diagnose COVID-19. A rank-sum test and ordinal logit regression modeling were used to analyze the data.Results: Two key findings: (a) trust in physician handling of treatment for COVID-19 is reported by about 74% of respondents; and (b) five of the six HL measures are positive predictors of public trust in physician treatment of the disease, with functional HL1 having the highest level of such association (coefficient 0.285, odds ratio 1.33%, p < 0.01).Conclusions: Improving public HL is important for better public-physician relationships, as well as for nations' efforts to contain the pandemic, serving as a possible behavioral, non-clinical antidote to COVID-19. Being confronted with the unprecedented virus, humans need trust. Health education and risk communication can improve public compliance with physicians' requirements and build a solid foundation for collective responses.
Highlights
The urgency and the forthrightness with which a clinical response to the onslaught of COVID-19 was implemented was totemic of the resolve of the worldwide community of interests to ensure global public health
The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between health literacy (HL) and public trust in physicians in China vis-à-vis efforts to control SARS-CoV2
Since HL is discussed in relation to COVID19, the measures yielded in this study differ significantly from standard measures that appear in the existing literature
Summary
The urgency and the forthrightness with which a clinical response to the onslaught of COVID-19 was implemented was totemic of the resolve of the worldwide community of interests to ensure global public health. The severity of mistrust in patient-physician relationships and the concerning levels of health literacy could foment discord whenever people are demonstrably anxious about the virus and about their inconveniences from their responses to it. Public response to such a public-health crisis can further undermine efforts by public-health practitioners to control the viral infection and the spread of the disease. In addition to the goal of having better control of the pandemic, the strained public-physician relationships in China merit more attention in part because violence against physicians threatens the country’s health-care system.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
