Comparison of trust in public vs private health care providers in rural Cambodia
Abstract
How trust in providers affects health care-seeking behaviour is not well understood. Focus groups and household surveys were conducted in Cambodia to examine how villagers describe their trust in public and private providers, and to assess whether a difference exists in provider trust levels. Our findings suggest the reasons for trusting public and private providers differ, and that villagers鈥� trust in and relationship with providers is one of the important considerations affecting where they seek care. People believed that public providers were 鈥榟onest鈥� and 鈥榮incere鈥�, did not 鈥榖ad mouth people鈥� and explained the 鈥榮tatus of [the] disease鈥�. Villagers trusted public providers for their skills and abilities, and for an effective referral system. In contrast, respondents noted that seeing private providers was 鈥榗omfortable and easy鈥�, that they 鈥榗ome to our home鈥� and patients can 鈥榦we [them] some money鈥�. Private providers were trusted for being very friendly and approachable, extremely thorough and careful, and easy to contact. Among those who sought care in the past 30 days, trust in the health care provider was listed as the fifth and second most important consideration for choosing public or private providers, respectively. This study illustrates the importance of trust as a unique concept that can affect people鈥檚 choice of health care providers in a low-income country.
Citation
Ozawa, S.; Walker, D.G. Comparison of trust in public vs private health care providers in rural Cambodia. Health Policy and Planning (2011) 26 (Suppl. 1) i20-i29. [DOI: 10.1093/heapol/czr045]