Public trust in governments, health care providers, and the media during pandemics: A systematic review

ABSTRACT Among the most important factors that determine whether public health recommendations receive widespread adherence during pandemics is public trust in the information disseminated by governments, health care providers, and the media. However, there remains uncertainty pertaining to the role of public trust in the acceptance and maintenance of public health recommendations during outbreaks. This systematic review and thematic analysis examined 41 studies on previous pandemics, epidemics, and global outbreaks in the twenty-first century to identify the relationship between public trust in the government, health care providers, and the media, and the acceptance, uptake, and maintenance of health behaviours that contain the spread of infectious disease. We found inconsistency in public trust towards the government and the media across multiple countries, while trust in health care providers was generally reported to be high with a few exceptions. We identified several unintended outcomes of mistrust when communicating public health recommendations such as non-compliance with recommended health measures, seeking information from alternative sources, and vaccine hesitancy. We conclude this paper by discussing the importance of public trust in promoting compliance with public health recommendations and the uptake of protective behaviours, as well as the downstream implications of mistrust that may develop in the COVID-19 pandemic.