BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Family Medicine and Primary Care
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1665927
This article is part of the Research TopicMis/Disinformation and Health: Individual, National, and Global ImplicationsView all articles
Patient Trust in the Health System, Internet Information Searching and the Patient-Provider Relationship
Provisionally accepted
- University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
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Importance: A positive patient-provider relationship is critical to the delivery of quality healthcare. Objective: To examine the association between patients' level of trust in the healthcare system, Internet information searching and the patient-provider relationship. Methods: Analysis of adult patientss aged >18 in the US nationally representative Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 7-2024) (unweighted n=2,510; weighted n is >87 million). The patient-provider relationship was assessed focusing on discussing health information found on the internet with their provider: (1) whether the provider was open to the discussion, (2) whether the provider was respectful, and (3) whether the interaction worsened. Respondents were asked how much they trust the healthcare system. Results: The proportion of adults patients with high trust in the healthcare system was 31%. Patients with low trust in the healthcare system (17%) were more likely than those with high trust (3%) in the healthcare system to perceive that in visits with their healthcare provider, talking about information found on the Internet, the patient-provider interaction became worse (p<.01). In logistic regressions controlling for multiple covariates, low trust in the healthcare system was associated with an increased likelihood that in visits with their healthcare provider, talking about information found on the Internet, the patient-provider interaction became worse (OR 6.76; 95% CI 2.35, 19.44). Conclusion: Patients with low trust in the healthcare system are at greater risk of having less than optimal relationships with their healthcare provider due to discussions over health information found on the Internet.
Keywords: Trust, Patient-Provider Interaction, Survey, Internet, USA
Received: 14 Jul 2025; Accepted: 21 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mainous, Liu-Galvin, Durden, Yin and Saguil. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Arch Mainous, arch.mainous@ufl.edu
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