The Effect of Age on White Females’ Trust in Medical Care in the United States of America

Abstract

This article provides some new insights into medical care industry in a highly industrialized country such as the United States of America.  The study underscores the effect of variation in age of individual white females on trust in medical care in the USA, and examines what significant factor(s) influence the trust of an individual towards medical care physicians provide to white female patients.  How age and trust were related was studied ‘within differences’ rather than ‘across differences’.  A LISREL programme was used to estimate a Structural Equation Multiple Indicator Multiple Independent Cause (MIMIC) model.  The article uses the United States of America General Social Survey data on white female.  While the model predicted that occupational prestige score, income, education, and age were all statistically significant, age variable had a stronger factor loading coefficient indicating that trust about medical care from physicians increase as white female respondents get older.  The findings indicated that overly simplistic categorization of racial binaries in explaining trust in medical care may inaccurately portray the relationship between a particular racial category and trust in medical care because differences within a racial category exist.  Dissecting a racial group will broader our understanding of trust and race relationship  that will enable indentifying effective strategies to eliminate inequalities in healthcare.