Trust and health: testing the reverse causality hypothesis

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Health Sciences
• Psychology

Background:

• Decades of research link generalized trust to better health outcomes.
• Longitudinal studies suggest trust independently predicts health.
• The reverse causality hypothesis (health predicting trust) remains under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To empirically investigate whether an individual's health status predicts their level of trust.
• To address the knowledge gap regarding the directionality of the trust-health relationship.

Main Methods:

• Utilized 4 waves of the British Household Panel Survey (2000-2007, N=8114).
• Employed logistic regression models with random effects, stratified by baseline trust.
• Analyzed temporal relationships between self-rated health (SRH) and changes in trust.

Main Results:

• Poor self-rated health at time (t-1) predicted lower trust at time (t) (OR=1.38).
• Good self-rated health predicted higher trust (OR=1.30).
• Associations remained significant after robustness checks for outcome misclassification and alternative pathways.

Conclusions:

• Provides empirical support for a circular relationship between health and trust.
• The temporal stability of the health-trust association varied between cohorts.
• Suggests complex, rather than simple feedback, pathways in the health-trust dynamic.