Trust in Medicine: A Scoping Review of the Instruments Designed to Measure Trust in Medical Care Studies

This scoping review study was conducted with the aim of identifying dimensions of trust in medical care, common trust subjects, and medical trust correlates among available instruments.

We carried out a scoping review of literature through Medline, EMBASE, Scopus, Google Scholar engine, and various information sources of grey literature, to identify eligible studies up to 2023. We merely included psychometric studies in these areas. Non-psychometrics studies were excluded. Two assessors independently and carefully chose papers and abstracted records for qualitative exploration.

Fifty-two studies (n=37228 participants) were included in the review. The majority of the participants 67 % (24943) were adults (≥18). One-dimensionality trust was found in 36 % (19) of trust in medical care studies, while multidimensionality was identified in 64 % (33) of the studies. Ten categories of trust in medicine correlates or associates were identified. In terms of trust scales subjects, about 71 % (37) of the scales measured trust in healthcare professions, 14 % (7) health care systems, and the rest were about emergency department, trauma care emergency department, health care team, technology, authorities, telemedicine, insurer, COVID-19 prevention policies, performance, and general trust.

Various tools have been developed and validated in the field of trust in healthcare, and several domains have been identified. Trust in medicine is correlated by a variety of factors such as patient characteristics, healthcare provider factors, healthcare organization features, health conditions, and social influences. It is suggested that researchers pay more attention to the most commonly known dimensions in preparing tools.