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Objective: We tracked the association between generalized and institutional trust and health in 26 countries from 2006 to 2016 by covering periods before, during, and after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Methods: Our data are from 3 waves of the Life-in-Transition survey coverings 26 countries in 3 waves (2006, 2010, and 2016). Thus, in our analysis persons are simultaneously nested in countries and through time without a pure hierarchy, because our data contains 3 waves of the survey for analysis, where each wave includes 26 countries. To address these variations, we estimate a cross-classified, varying-intercept, ML linear regression model with the following 4 levels – individual, countries, time, and countries multiplied by time. Results: There was a strong positive association between both generalized and institutional trusts and health. This effect was consistent for the whole sample, regional subsamples, and for female/male subsamples. This effect was also consistent for the whole period under investigation. Conclusions: Given the importance of generalized trust and institutional trust for health, authorities should focus on ways to build and maintain both types of trust.
Habibov et al. (Sat,) studied this question.