Exploring Patients’ Trust from a New Perspective. A Text-Analysis Study
Abstract
The concept of trust has been extensively studied within the field of medicine. Yet, a list of factors that clearly influence patients' trust is still under debate. Moreover, the methodological approaches found in literature have been reported to be lacking in their assessments and measurements of trust relationships in the medical field although trust between a patient and medical provider has been proven to increase adherence and improve health outcomes. Hence, adding data to this debate and exploring a reliable method to explore the construct of trust is relevant. This study collects new evidence of the most salient indicators of patient trust by using a narrative approach and highlighting the potential of this method in collecting indicators that could be used to build training that aims to increase patients' trust. We used the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software for text analysis to examine the spontaneous narrations of episodes of trust and distrust within the doctor-patient relationship with a sample of 82 adult patients. Results demonstrate the role of the emotional aspects of the doctor-patient relationship. Data highlights the importance of doctors' benevolence toward patients, and positive emotions seem to be deeply connected with any experience of trust, which leads patients to feel more secure. Methods are presented to use these insights to construct mechanisms that establish medical trust and allow providers to implement effective interventions.
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Patients' past negative experiences can hinder patient-provider communication and impair trust-building, making patients hesitate to engage in collaborative care.
“Patients’ past negative experiences can hinder patient-provider communication and impair trust-building, making patients hesitate to engage in collaborative care [64,65].”
From Toward Safer Diagnoses: A SEIPS-Based Narrative Review of Diagnostic Errors (2026) · cites this paper as [64]
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- Authors
- Colombo, B., Aurelio, B., Wallace, H. J., & Heath, J. L.
- Affiliations
- Champlain College (US)
- University of Vermont (US)
- Corresponding author
- Colombo, Barbara
- Venue
- Health Communication
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-10-10
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 13
- Pages
- 3040-3050
- ISSN
- 1041-0236 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7027
- OpenAlex
- W4304014792
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 1.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Health Communication (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- funding associated
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare
- Keywords
- patient trust, physician-patient relationship, trust indicators, benevolence, patient narratives, positive emotions, patient-provider communication
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Emotions, Humans, Physician-Patient Relations, Physicians, Narration, Trust
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