Trust in health and medical science under pressure, Academy warns

Australia’s comparatively strong trust in health and medical science is under growing pressure, with real consequences for public health, research and the health system – warns a report today from the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS).

AAHMS has today published an evidence brief examining what Australians say about their trust in health and medical science. It looks at what their behaviours – including vaccination rates, participation in research, and engagement with the health system – reveal about the state of that trust.

Academy President Professor Louise Baur AM PresAHMS said maintaining public trust is essential to Australia’s health and research systems.

“Trust influences whether people seek evidence-based healthcare, participate in research, follow public health advice, and accept life-saving treatments.”

“Australia starts from a position of comparatively strong trust in health and medical science, but this confidence cannot be taken for granted – it needs to be actively maintained.”

The evidence brief draws together existing survey data, published research and health system indicators to build a picture of where trust in health and medical science stands today.

It highlights Australia’s declining vaccination coverage as an important warning sign. Although Australians tend to self-report high levels of trust in health and medical science and scientists, childhood vaccination coverage has fallen below national targets.

This gap between what people say they trust and the choices they make matters. It shows that trust cannot be measured by attitudes alone. It must also be understood through behaviours, access to services, lived experience and the wider information environment in which health decisions are made.

While the reasons for under-vaccination are complex and include practical barriers to accessing healthcare, the evidence brief finds that distrust is central to the decision-making of many of the people choosing not to vaccinate.

Almost half (48.8%) of surveyed Australian parents of unvaccinated children say they believe vaccines were unsafe, while 43.7% of them report a lack of trust in vaccination information received from a doctor or nurse.

“Trust is not simply a question of whether someone says that they trust in science,” Professor Baur said.

“We also need to understand how trust interacts with people’s experiences of the health system, their access to services, the information they encounter, and the decisions they ultimately make.”

The Academy’s evidence brief highlights the critical role of trusted intermediaries such as GPs in helping people to navigate a complex information environment in which evidence-based health and medical advice must increasingly compete with mis- and dis-information surrounding topics ranging from the safety of sunscreen to the nature and causes of autism.

“Trust is vital infrastructure for a healthy society,” Professor Baur added.

“Strengthening it requires more than communicating facts. It requires listening to communities, addressing systemic barriers, and coordinated action across the democratic, scientific, health and research institutions where trust can either be strengthened or degraded.”

The evidence brief is the latest milestone in the Academy’s landmark project on trust in health and medical science, which convenes national and international scientific, health, government and media voices to consider how Australia can maintain and strengthen trust in health and medicine at a time of rapid social and technological change.

Through this work, the Academy is seeking to move the national conversation beyond concern about misinformation alone, and toward a broader understanding of what builds, damages and sustains public trust in health and medical science.

Read the full AAHMS report on Measuring Trust here.

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