Toward a Better Understanding of Trust on Outcomes: The Case of Patient-Physician Encounters

Trust in physicians has been associated with a range of patients’ behaviors. However, previous research has not focused on the mechanisms by which trust affects health status and mostly has made use of self-reported outcomes. Studying a sample of 480 adult patients with type 2 diabetes, we found that patients who trust their physicians were more likely to have stronger self-efficacy expectations and outcome expectations. This, in turn, was associated with better treatment adherence and objective health outcomes. Furthermore, high trusting patients were likely to report better health status through enhanced self-efficacy belief. This study clarifies the effect of trust on different types of health outcomes and provides the empirical evidence that trust in physicians is associated with therapeutic response.