When I think about faith in medical science, I look at this from two different ways. The first is
looking at faith in the religious term and secondly as faith in the trust term. When it comes to
faith in medicine, one’s religious faith plays a big role in how they determine the type of care they
will receive. Certain religions have rules on what types of care are banned or prohibited for
practicing members of their faith. In terms of Jehovah’s Witness, they cannot receive a blood
transfusion under any circumstance. Christian Scientist practitioners believe in the power of prayer
but do not ban followers seeking treatment from health care professionals. They do strongly
encourage the practice of faith healing and prayer regimens (Everyday Health, 2022).
When we look at faith in the term of trust, we kind of have to have a little bit of trust in the
health care professionals and scientist who are part of the care team. We must have trust that
they are trained and educated to take care of us and our loved ones. Since COVID started, millions
of Americans have trusted medical science and the scientist behind the COVID vaccine (Cary Funk,
2020). Trust is something that is subjective to each patient, but it will always be a topic that will
arise as trust can be broken with a bad outcome. Medical science has had a great impact on
medicine both good and bad and will always play a role as technology is evolving and access to
care has become issues for variety of reasons.
b b b b Patients having too much faith in medical science can have dangerous implications because
instead of patients proactively engaging in healthy lifestyle choices, they often choose to take a
more lackadaisical lifestyle approach that leads to them reacting to the results of poor lifestyle
choices through medicine, surgical operations, etc. For example, in 1980, the CDC listed
cardiovascular disease as the number one cause of death in the United States. In 2018 (30 years
later), cardiovascular disease is still listed as the number one cause of death (CDC, 2019).
Cardiovascular disease is largely intertwined with poor lifestyle choices, which can include an
unhealthy diet, smoking, lack of exercise, etc. Even with all the knowledge that has been acquired
since 1980, individuals still choose to live carefree lifestyles and deal with the consequences later.
This is mainly attributed to the fact that patients have a great deal of faith in the progress that has
taken place within the medical field over the past 20 years and believe that there is a medicine,
treatment plan, or surgical operation that can cure almost any ailment.
b b b b b b b b b b According to the CDC (2019), obesity and diabetes rates have significantly increased from
1994-2014, in both the U.S. paediatric population as well as the adult population. Despite all the
knowledge that has been gained since 1994, the U.S. population has no fear of the consequences
of obesity because they believe weight loss surgery can serve as an acceptable alternative. This, in
part, has to do with education level; patients that understand a healthy diet has other implications
besides physical weight gain (including high blood pressure, clogged arteries, and diabetes) are
more likely to be cautious with their diets. Another example of this can be found when assessing
rates of cigarette smoking, which is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death
in the U.S. Although cigarette smoking rates have gone down significantly across all education
levels, rates of cigarette smoking continue to be substantially lower in populations of individuals
who have a Bachelor’s degree or higher, while rates are higher in populations that have no high
school diploma or have a GED (CDC, 2019). Therefore, it is a two-fold issue: one is convincing
individuals to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to their health, while the other
involves democratizing information and allowing all populations to the health care information
they need to lead healthy lifestyles.
b b b b b b b b b b Additionally, it has been discovered that patients show an extraordinary amount of trust
to doctors without always performing their due diligence. In 2008, the American College of
Surgeons, the national scientific and educational organization of surgeons, conducted a nationwide
survey that found that the average patient devotes an hour or less to researching their surgery or
surgeon. Although patients worried about the costs or complications of an operation, they did not
necessarily look for information that would address their concerns. More than a third of patients
who had an operation in the last five years never reviewed the credentials of the surgeon who
operated. Patients are more likely to spend time researching a job change (~10 hours) or a new
car (~8 hours) than the operation they are about to submit to or the surgeon who will be
performing the operation (Chen, 2008). This speaks volumes regarding the priorities of the U.S.
population and the blind faith that they give to the doctors dictating the series of events that will
have life-long consequences. Patients must be more active participants while deciding what course
of action will be best for them long-term, rather than blindly trusting whatever a physician tells
them—a physician that they are not even taking the time to learn the credentials for.
References:
1. CDC. (2019). Leading causes of death and numbers of deaths, by sex, race, and Hispanic origin:
United States, 1980 and 2018. National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2019.htm.
2. CDC. (2016). Health, United States, 2016. National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/index.htm.
3. Chen, P. (2008). Do Patients Trust Doctors Too Much? New York Times. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/health/18chen.html.
Cary Funk, B. K. (2020, May 21). Trust in Medical Scientists Has Grown in U.S., but Mainly Among
Democrats. Retrieved from Pew Research Center:
https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/05/21/trust-in-medical-scientists-has-grown-in-u-s-
but-mainly-among-democrats/
Everyday Health. (2022). COPD: Religion vs. Medicine: When Faith Gets in the Way of Health.
Retrieved from Everyday Health: https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living-pictures/religion-
vs-medicine-when-faith-gets-in-the-way-of-health.aspx
Hall, M. A., Camacho, F., Dugan, E., & Balakrishnan, R. (2002). Trust in the medical profession:
conceptual and measurement issues. Health services research, 37(5), 1419–1439.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.01070
