Examining the Institutional Medical Mistrust Scale (IMMS) in the COVID-19 Pandemic, United States, 2022

The objective of this study is to validate the Institutional Medical Mistrust Scale (IMMS) using a large, national population to better understand issues of public trust in healthcare and government organizations. The aims of this study are: (1) conduct a national population survey using the IMMS; (1a) examine the influence that healthcare organizations and governing institutions at the local, state, and federal level have on medical mistrust during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States; (1b) test the psychometrics of the IMMS in a large national survey; (2) test the IMMS in a national population with intentional oversampling of African American/Black, Latinx, and chronic disease respondents in the United States.
The endpoints for this study are divided into psychosocial measures as well as physical measures including: (1) measurement of institutional medical mistrust among health care and local/state and federal government organizations; (2) mental and physical health; (3) vaccine uptake or hesitation; (4) factors associated with vaccine uptake or hesitation.