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Is health literacy associated with greater medical care trust?
Tzu-I Tsai1, Wen-Ry Yu2, Shoou-Yih D Lee3
1School of Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan, No. 155, Sec 2, Linong Street, Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan.
Objective:
To examine the relationship between health literacy and trust in physicians and in the healthcare system.
Design:
A cross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample of adults.
Setting:
Taiwan.
Participants:
Non-institutionalized adults (N = 2199).
Main Measures:
Trust in physicians was a composite measure assessing respondents' general trust in physicians and their perceptions of their physician's communication, medical skills, beneficence, honesty, confidentiality, respect and fairness. Trust in the healthcare system was a single-item measure. Health literacy was measured by four items.
Results:
Respondents with higher health literacy had, overall, higher levels of trust in physicians (P<0.001) and in the healthcare system (P = 0.04). Health literacy remained significantly and positively associated with trust in physicians (P<0.001) and in the healthcare system (P = 0.001) after adjusting for respondents' sociodemographic characteristics.
Conclusions:
Our findings demonstrate that health literacy is positively associated with trust. Actionable plans targeting health literacy at the national and local levels to establish a health literate care environment may contribute to enhancing trust in physicians and the healthcare system.
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