IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i2p993-d725967.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trust in the Healthcare System and Physicians in Croatia: A Survey of the General Population

Author

Listed:
  • Krunoslav Nikodem

    (Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Ivana Lučića 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia)

  • Marko Ćurković

    (School of Medicine, University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče, University of Zagreb, Bolnička Cesta 32, 10090 Zagreb, Croatia)

  • Ana Borovečki

    (Andrija Stampar School of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Rockefellerova 4, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia)

Abstract

Trust in healthcare systems and physicians is considered important for the delivery of good healthcare. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a random three-stage sample of the general population of Croatia (N = 1230), stratified by regions. Of respondents, 58.7% displayed a high or very high level of trust in the healthcare system, 65.6% in physicians, and 78.3% in their family physician. Respondents’ views regarding patients’ roles in the discussion of treatment options, confidence in physicians’ expertise, and underlying motives of physicians were mixed. Respondents with a lower level of education, those with low monthly incomes, and those from smaller settlements had lower levels of trust in physicians and the healthcare system. Trust in other institutions, religiosity and religious beliefs, tolerance of personal choice, and experience of caring for the seriously ill and dying were predictors of trust in healthcare and physicians. Our findings suggest that levels of healthcare-related trust in Croatia are increasing in comparison with previous research, but need improvement. Levels of trust are lowest in populations that are most vulnerable and most in need of care and protection.

Suggested Citation

  • Krunoslav Nikodem & Marko Ćurković & Ana Borovečki, 2022. "Trust in the Healthcare System and Physicians in Croatia: A Survey of the General Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:2:p:993-:d:725967
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/2/993/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/2/993/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ozawa, Sachiko & Sripad, Pooja, 2013. "How do you measure trust in the health system? A systematic review of the literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 10-14.
    2. Gilson, Lucy, 2003. "Trust and the development of health care as a social institution," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(7), pages 1453-1468, April.
    3. John M Kelley & Gordon Kraft-Todd & Lidia Schapira & Joe Kossowsky & Helen Riess, 2014. "The Influence of the Patient-Clinician Relationship on Healthcare Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-7, April.
    4. Radin, Dagmar, 2013. "Does corruption undermine trust in health care? Results from public opinion polls in Croatia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 46-53.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arakelyan, Stella & Jailobaeva, Kanykey & Dakessian, Arek & Diaconu, Karin & Caperon, Lizzie & Strang, Alison & Bou-Orm, Ibrahim R. & Witter, Sophie & Ager, Alastair, 2021. "The role of trust in health-seeking for non-communicable disease services in fragile contexts: A cross-country comparative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    2. Smirnova, Michelle & Owens, Jennifer Gatewood, 2017. "Medicalized addiction, self-medication, or nonmedical prescription drug use? How trust figures into incarcerated women's conceptualization of illicit prescription drug use," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 106-115.
    3. Stasiulis, Elaine & Gibson, Barbara E. & Webster, Fiona & Boydell, Katherine M., 2020. "Resisting governance and the production of trust in early psychosis intervention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    4. Rosemarie Sheehan & Gerard Fealy, 2020. "Trust in the nurse: Findings from a survey of hospitalised children," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(21-22), pages 4289-4299, November.
    5. Mary B. Adam & Angela Donelson, 2022. "Trust is the engine of change: A conceptual model for trust building in health systems," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 116-127, January.
    6. Groenewegen, Peter P. & Hansen, Johan & de Jong, Judith D., 2019. "Trust in times of health reform," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(3), pages 281-287.
    7. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2023. "Trusting the health system and COVID 19 restriction compliance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118267, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Dincer, Oguzhan & Gillanders, Robert, 2021. "Shelter in place? Depends on the place: Corruption and social distancing in American states," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    9. Franzén, Cecilia & Nilsson, Eva-Lotta & Norberg, Johan R. & Peterson, Tomas, 2020. "Trust as an analytical concept for the study of welfare programmes to reduce child health disparities: The case of a Swedish postnatal home visiting programme," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    10. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2023. "Trusting the Health System and COVID 19 Restriction Compliance," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    11. Hamill, Heather & Hampshire, Kate & Mariwah, Simon & Amoako-Sakyi, Daniel & Kyei, Abigail & Castelli, Michele, 2019. "Managing uncertainty in medicine quality in Ghana: The cognitive and affective basis of trust in a high-risk, low-regulation context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 234(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Schneider, Pia, 2005. "Trust in micro-health insurance: an exploratory study in Rwanda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(7), pages 1430-1438, October.
    13. Brownlie, Julie & Howson, Alexandra, 2006. "'Between the demands of truth and government': Health practitioners, trust and immunisation work," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 433-443, January.
    14. Coast, Joanna, 2018. "A history that goes hand in hand: Reflections on the development of health economics and the role played by Social Science & Medicine, 1967–2017," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 227-232.
    15. Nong, Paige & Raj, Minakshi & Trinidad, Marie Grace & Rowe, Zachary & Platt, Jodyn, 2021. "Understanding racial differences in attitudes about public health efforts during COVID-19 using an explanatory mixed methods design," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    16. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2023. "Health System Trust and Compliance with COVID-19 Restrictions," IZA Discussion Papers 15961, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Topp, Stephanie M. & Tully, Josslyn & Cummins, Rachel & Graham, Veronica & Yashadhana, Aryati & Elliott, Lana & Taylor, Sean, 2022. "Building patient trust in health systems: A qualitative study of facework in the context of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker role in Queensland, Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    18. Alam, Mohammad Zahedul & Hu, Wang & Kaium, Md Abdul & Hoque, Md Rakibul & Alam, Mirza Mohammad Didarul, 2020. "Understanding the determinants of mHealth apps adoption in Bangladesh: A SEM-Neural network approach," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    19. Karen R. Sepucha & Steven J. Atlas & Yuchiao Chang & Andrew Freiberg & Henrik Malchau & Mahima Mangla & Harry Rubash & Leigh H. Simmons & Thomas Cha, 2018. "Informed, Patient-Centered Decisions Associated with Better Health Outcomes in Orthopedics: Prospective Cohort Study," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 38(8), pages 1018-1026, November.
    20. Mavisakalyan, Astghik & Otrachshenko, Vladimir & Popova, Olga, 2021. "Can bribery buy health? Evidence from post-communist countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 991-1007.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:2:p:993-:d:725967. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.