Survey Identifies Factors Associated With FDA Mistrust – Renal and Urology News

Gender, political affiliation, and health status were all associated with mistrust in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to survey results published in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

To better understand the roots of mistrust, the study authors conducted a survey that asked participants to score their feelings on the FDA in 4 areas: competence and effectiveness, commitment to act in the public’s best interest, consistency with rules and regulations, and  expertise in health, science, and medicine. The main goal was to determine the level of trust survey participants had in the agency by calculating the mean score on each of these points.

The survey received 2021 responses and identified certain factors linked to mistrust with the FDA. Being female (odds ratio [OR], 0.74, 95% CI, 0.62-0.88), residing in a rural community (OR 0.85, 95% CI, 0.75-0.96), having conservative political views (OR 0.77, 95% CI, 0.74-0.81), and not having children younger than 18 years old (OR 0.72, 95% CI, 0.60-0.86) were all associated with FDA mistrust.  

Additionally, respondents who were in poor health (OR 0.89, 95% CI, 0.80-0.98), those who felt they did not receive satisfactory health care (OR 0.63, 95% CI, 0.56-0.71), and people who paid less attention to health and science news (OR 0.72, 95% CI, 0.64-0.80) were all more likely to mistrust the FDA. 

“These findings underscore the challenges faced by US political leaders in convincing a heterogeneous American public to trust the FDA,” the authors noted. They concluded by stating that outreach programs targeting populations with lower levels of trust should be deployed in order to improve confidence in the agency.

This article originally appeared on MPR