By Bill Levesque
Amid many Americans’ distrust of health recommendations from government health agencies and scientists, one person stands above the fray.
Your doctor.
A new University of Florida Health study shows that Americans’ trust in their doctor’s health recommendations remains as strong as ever — 95% in this survey — even after four tumultuous years of a COVID-19 pandemic that, in many ways, divided Americans on questions of preventive medicine and trust in national health institutions.
The study, published today in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, shows that scientists and health agencies are not faring as well as physicians.
Study lead author Arch G. Mainous III, Ph.D., a professor of health services research, management and policy in the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, and a professor of community health and family medicine and vice chair for research in the UF College of Medicine, said these trends are less surprising than the reason confidence is falling.
Americans indicate they lose trust in the accuracy of health recommendations by scientists and governmental health agencies when they perceive that those guidelines frequently change, the study said. That leads them to think the recommendations are inaccurate and based on something other than science.
Guidelines do, of course, change, as science advances, although perhaps not as quickly as many people think, Mainous said. The mere perception, true or not, nonetheless strongly influences whether Americans are willing to follow health advice.
“Although science and new studies are always changing our knowledge of disease and treatments, this process of scientific discovery seems to be confusing to the general public and undermines their confidence in the health information provided by government health experts,” he said.
Americans trust their doctors because they have a unique physician-patient relationship that might span years or even decades. That personal connection builds confidence in their recommendations compared with someone they’ve never met.
Mainous believes a solution is to focus more intensely on having doctors communicate health recommendations to patients and to rely less on agencies elevating the profile of their leaders by communicating directly to the public. That has clearly been counterproductive, he said, creating lightning rods where public anxiety and anger become focused.
Read the full story in the UF Health newsroom.