Table 2.
Healthcare system distrust scale questions (n = 150).
| Domain | Mean (SD) | |
|---|---|---|
| Veterans Health Administration (VHA) does its best to make patients health bettera | Competence | 1.8 (0.7) |
| Veterans Health Administration covers up its mistakesb | Value | 2.9 (1.0) |
| Patients receive high quality medical care from Veterans Health Administrationa | Competence | 2.0 (0.9) |
| VHA makes too many mistakesc | Competence | 2.4 (0.8) |
| VHA puts making money above patients’ needs | Value | 2.2 (0.9) |
| VHA gives excellent medical carea | Competence | 2.2 (1.0) |
| Patients get the same medical treatment from VHA, no matter what the patient’s race or ethnicitya,d | Value | 2.1 (1.0) |
| VHA lies to make moneye | Value | 2.2 (0.8) |
| VHA experiments on patients without them knowing | Value | 2.4 (1.0) |
Items are answered on a scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. Higher scores indicate greater distrust.
a
Item is reverse scored, meaning that strongly disagree = 5 and strongly agree = 1.
b
Five patients responded ‘N/A’ and were excluded from the analysis.
c
Four patients responded ‘N/A’ and were excluded from the analysis.
d
One patient responded ‘N/A’ and was excluded from the analysis.
e
Three patients responded ‘N/A’ and were excluded from the analysis.