Hall Mark A, Camacho Fabian, Lawlor Janice S, Depuy Venita, Sugarman Jeremy, Weinfurt Kevin
Wake Forest University, Department of Social Science and Health Policy, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1063, USA.
Med Care. 2006 Nov;44(11):1048-53. doi: 10.1097/01.mlr.0000228023.37087.cb.
Concern is widespread that the public's and participants' trust in medical research is threatened, but few empirical measures of research trust exist. This project aims to enable more rigorous study of researcher trust by developing and testing appropriate survey measures.
Survey items were developed based on a conceptual model of the primary domains of researcher trust (safety, fidelity, honesty, global trust). Pilot testing was conducted on a regional convenience sample of adults (n = 124). Exploratory factor analyses of the data were performed, and an item selection procedure reduced the number of survey questions. A final set of 12 items was validated, and a 4-item short version of the researcher trust scale was selected and tested in a national web-based survey of asthma and diabetes patients (n = 3623). Further factor analysis and validation were performed on this larger sample.
Both the full and short scales have a single-factor structure with acceptable internal reliability (alphas of 0.87 [12 items] and 0.72 [4 items]). Trust in physician researchers and trust in medical researchers generally were found not to be separate constructs. In the national sample, the short scale was positively associated with better health status, prior participation in medical research, and willingness to participate in a hypothetical medical research study, and negatively associated with African-American race and higher education.
Trust in medical researchers is a measurable single-factor construct including trust in safety, researcher fidelity, and honesty. This new scale provides an empirical tool for informing the ethics and public policy of medical research.
人们普遍担心公众和参与者对医学研究的信任受到威胁，但衡量研究信任的实证方法却很少。本项目旨在通过开发和测试合适的调查方法，使对研究者信任的研究更加严谨。
基于研究者信任主要领域（安全性、忠实性、诚实性、总体信任）的概念模型开发调查项目。对一个地区的成年便利样本（n = 124）进行了预测试。对数据进行探索性因子分析，并通过项目选择程序减少了调查问题的数量。最终验证了一组12个项目，并在一项针对哮喘和糖尿病患者的全国性网络调查（n = 3623）中选择并测试了一个由4个项目组成的研究者信任量表简短版本。对这个更大的样本进行了进一步的因子分析和验证。
完整量表和简短量表均具有单因素结构，内部信度可接受（12个项目的α系数为0.87，4个项目的α系数为0.72）。发现对医生研究者的信任和对医学研究者的总体信任并非独立的概念。在全国样本中，简短量表与更好的健康状况、先前参与医学研究以及参与假设性医学研究的意愿呈正相关，与非裔美国人种族和高等教育呈负相关。
对医学研究者的信任是一个可测量的单因素概念，包括对安全性、研究者忠实性和诚实性的信任。这个新量表为医学研究的伦理和公共政策提供了一个实证工具。
