The elderly trust their Primary Care doctor a lot

88.1% of men and 85.2% of women in Spain have high trust in their Primary Care health professionalas can be seen from the brief report Paris of the Ministry of Health. This international survey, in which they have participated 19,067 patients In our country, it is the first that systematically asks people aged 45 and overmany of them with chronic diseases, how they live their health and how they value the care they receive at their health center.

The report shows that confidence is high in all age groups, but increases as people get older, especially in older men. Between 45 and 54 years old, 85.7% of men and 82.8% of women say they trust the professionals at their center. In the 65 to 74 age group, the figures rise and, From the age of 75, male confidence reaches 90.5%.

In women of that same age group, the percentage is also very high (86.6%), although it decreases slightly compared to previous ranges. In all groups, they declare something more trustworthy than themwith differences that are around 3 percentage points and that increase after 75 years of age.

The PaRIS survey also allows us to see how trust changes depending on the autonomous community and the size of the municipality. In Rioja The highest percentages are recorded in both men and women (93.9% and 91.5%, respectively).

At the opposite extreme is the autonomous city of Ceutawhere trust is still the majority, but drops to 80.8% in men and 73.9% in women. Even so, the report highlights the “considerable homogeneity” of responses across the National Health Systemwith maximum differences of 12 points between communities if extreme values ​​are excluded.

Trust is higher in small towns and provincial capitals than in medium-sized cities that are not capitals.. Among men who live in towns with less than 10,000 inhabitants, 89.8% declare high trust in their Primary Care professional, compared to lower percentages in municipalities with 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. A similar pattern is observed in women, with the worst results in medium-sized cities and better figures in towns and capitals.

More chronic illnesses, same confidence

One of the key questions of the study was whether confidence changed according to the number of chronic diseases that the person has. The answer is that there are no big variations. In men, those who have several or none of the pathologies show very similar levels of confidence. In women with three or more chronic diseases, a slight drop of almost 3 points does appear, from 86.4 to 83.8 percent. However, the differences are small and not always significant.

Money doesn’t explain everything either, but a positive gradient is seen among women: The higher the income level, the greater the confidence.. In them, confidence is between 87.7% and 91% in the highest income brackets, while among those who declare less than 1,633 euros per month it is somewhat lower. In men, this clear pattern is not observed and there is even a small decrease in the highest income group.

When the wait gets long

If there is something that does erode patients’ trust in their professionals, it is waiting time to be attended to. “Was the waiting time until the consultation was carried out a problem for you?” the questionnaire asks. Among those who answer yes, confidence drops to 75.2% in men and 73% in women. On the other hand, among those who do not perceive waiting as a problem, the figures shoot up to 91.2% for them and 88.9% for women.

Something similar happens with the so-called “adverse effects“, which include everything from difficulties in getting an appointment to diagnostic errors either communication problems among professionals. Among those who say they have had this type of problem “always”, trust drops to 68.1% in men and 66% in women.