Public Sentiment Toward Military Medical Research: Ethics, Cost, and Civilian Relevance

United States (US) military medical research has contributed substantially to advancements in trauma care, infectious disease management, and public health systems, among other domains. Extending beyond military readiness, many innovations have resulted in civilian healthcare applications. Prior national survey data indicated generally favorable views of military medical research despite limited public awareness of its scope and impact. Nonetheless, limitations of that support remain incompletely characterized, particularly regarding ethics, cost, transparency, and civilian applicability. This study aimed to further characterize the values and concerns associated with public support for US military medical research.

This study is a secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data from 2,055 US adults assessing awareness, perceptions, and attitudes toward military medical research. We examined associations between concerns, such as safety, ethics, cost, privacy, civilian relevance, and participants' perceptions of research value, views on the US military, and trust in US military medical research findings. Associations were assessed using chi-square tests with P < .05 considered significant, and effect sizes were reported using Cramer's V.

Among respondents, 55% agreed that military medical research follows rigorous scientific and ethical standards, while 37% were neutral and 9% disagreed. Concerns related to ethics, cost, and civilian relevance were significantly associated with reduced trust and less favorable perceptions toward military medical research. Concerns about ethics demonstrated one of the strongest and most consistent associations across analyses. Respondents expressing unfavorable views of both the US military and US military medical research reported higher levels of concern across multiple domains than those with favorable views of both. Conversely, individuals interested in learning more about military medical research demonstrated higher levels of trust in research findings.

Public support for US military medical research appears substantial but conditional, as perceptions may be strongly influenced by concerns regarding ethics, cost, and civilian relevance. These findings suggest that trust in military medical research extends beyond perceptions of scientific rigor alone and may also reflect broader institutional expectations of transparency and public benefit. Additionally, the association between interest in learning more and higher levels of trust suggests that public engagement may represent a mechanism to improve perceptions and demonstrate transparency and relevance.