DOCTOR-PATIENT TRUST AND QUESTIONING MEDICAL AUTHORITY: A RACE, GENDER, AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ANALYSIS

Abstract

With millions of Americans visiting the doctor each year and major changes being made to the current state of health care, it is important that patients feel they can trust their physicians and will receive the best medical treatment available. However, increasingly physicians are participating in financial incentive plans that discourage the use of high-cost tests. This research examines how race, gender, and socioeconomic status shape trust within medical relationships and willingness to question medical authority using the 2002 General Social Survey data. Support is found for both a functionalist model of compliance and conflict model of power and self-advocacy. Blacks have significantly lower levels of trust than whites that physicians will put their health above costs and are significantly more likely to question medical authority. As socioeconomic status increases patients are less likely to question medical authority. As trust in physicians increase, patients are less likely to question medical authority. Gender did not predict trust or willingness to question medical authority. This research suggests the increasing importance of self-advocacy in health care as the system undergoes changes, and promotes a greater awareness of how collective legacies of racism, sexism, and classism can potentially shape the medical relationship and health disparities.