TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2012//
TI  - The Public Health Disaster Trust Scale: Validation of a Brief Measure
JO  - Journal of public health management and practice
A1  - Eisenman, David P.
A1  - Williams, Malcolm V.
A1  - Glik, Deborah
A1  - Long, Anna
A1  - Plough, Alonzo L.
A1  - Ong, Michael
SP  - E11
EP  - E18
VL  - 18
IS  - 4
N2  - CONTEXT:: Trust contributes to community resilience by the critical influence it has on the community's responses to public health recommendations before, during, and after disasters. However, trust in public health is a multifactorial concept that has rarely been defined and measured empirically in public health jurisdictional risk assessment surveys. Measuring trust helps public health departments identify and ameliorate a threat to effective risk communications and increase resilience. Such a measure should be brief to be incorporated into assessments conducted by public health departments. OBJECTIVE:: We report on a brief scale of public health disaster-related trust, its psychometric properties, and its validity. DESIGN:: On the basis of a literature review, our conceptual model of public health disaster-related trust and previously conducted focus groups, we postulated that public health disaster-related trust includes 4 major domains: competency, honesty, fairness, and confidentiality. SETTING:: A random-digit-dialed telephone survey of the Los Angeles county population, conducted in 2004-2005 in 6 languages. PARTICIPANTS:: Two thousand five hundred eighty-eight adults aged 18 years and older including oversamples of African Americans and Asian Americans. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:: Trust was measured by 4 items scored on a 4-point Likert scale. A summary score from 4 to 16 was constructed. RESULTS:: Scores ranged from 4 to 16 and were normally distributed with a mean of 8.5 (SD 2.7). Cronbach α = 0.79. As hypothesized, scores were lower among racial/ethnic minority populations than whites. Also, trust was associated with lower likelihood of following public health recommendations in a hypothetical disaster and lower likelihood of household disaster preparedness. CONCLUSIONS:: The Public Health Disaster Trust scale may facilitate identifying communities where trust is low and prioritizing them for inclusion in community partnership building efforts under Function 2 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Preparedness Capability 1. The scale is brief, reliable, and validated in multiple ethnic populations and languages.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1078-4659
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PHH.0b013e31823991e8
ID  - ref1
ER  -