Objective: The widespread adoption of digital health technologies and increasing online access to health information are transforming the patient-physician relationship and trust in physicians in primary care. This study aimed to examine the associations of digital health use, online medical information seeking, and alternative medicine use with physician trust, and to investigate how chronic disease status shapes this relationship at the national level.Methods: Cross-sectional data from the 2024 Türkiye General Social Survey (TGSS 2024) were used.
The physician-trust item was administered only to respondents who had used primary care services in the preceding 12 months, yielding a trust-eligible analytic subsample of n=1,712 within the full survey sample of n=2,615. The dependent variable was physician trust (1-5 Likert scale), with digital health use, online medical information seeking frequency, and alternative medicine use as primary independent variables.
Three logistic regression models were constructed; Spearman correlation analysis and chronic disease subgroup analyses were performed. Reporting followed the STROBE guidelines for cross-sectional studies. Results: Among the trust-eligible subsample (n=1,712), 65.9% reported high physician trust (mean trust score 3.69±0.91).
A negative correlation was found between online medical information seeking and physician trust (ρ=-0.10; p