Level of Trust of the Population in the Unified Health System in the Midst of the COVID-19 Crisis in Brazil

Abstract

Objective: to assess the level of trust in health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Methods: A cross-sectional study, carried out between 2020 and 2021, among Brazilians over 18. Nonprobabilistic sampling was used. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied, using the local bivariate Moran’s technique to verify the existence of spatial dependence between the incidence and mortality of COVID-19 and trust in health services. Furthermore, multinomial regression was also used to analyze the factors associated with the confidence level, with the calculation of the odds ratio and with a confidence interval of 95%. Results: A total of 50.6% reported trust in hospital services, while 41.4% did not trust primary health care services. With the application of the local bivariate Moran, both for the incidence and mortality of COVID-19, the trust in tertiary care and primary care services showed a statistically significant spatial association predominant in the Midwest (high–low) and North (low–high) regions of Brazil. The level of trust was associated with education, religion, region of the country and income. Conclusions: The level of trust in hospital services, more than primary health care services, may be related to the population’s culture of prioritizing the search for hospital care at the detriment of health promotion and disease prevention.