A new study suggests that “distrust of the healthcare system, including government health agencies, is seeping into the doctor-patient relationship and threatening the delivery of care.”
Researchers found that “people with low trust in the healthcare system are more than six times more likely to say their interaction with a doctor worsened after they brought information from the internet to their medical visit.” This was found to be true regardless of the patient’s political leaning.
The study’s lead author said that, when patients turn to “social media, online forums, or self-described experts who often espouse misinformation,” they arrive at appointments “expecting their doctors to validate what they found online.”
The study “analyzed national survey data from more than 2,500 adults who had discussed health information they had found on the internet with a medical provider in the prior year.” Only a third of those surveyed “said they had ‘a lot’ of trust in the healthcare system. Those reporting low trust were much more likely to say their interaction with a doctor worsened after looking up online medical information.” Among patients with high trust, “only 3% reported that their doctor-patient interaction worsened after discussing online information with their doctor. But among those with low trust, that number jumped to 17%.”
