Public attitudes towards health after the pandemic are a key factor for trust in health authorities

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on the attitudes of society, not only towards health authorities, but also towards health as a fundamental human value. Global experience shows that measures to limit the spread of the virus and strict monitoring of their compliance are mandatory conditions for infection control.

The study aims to determine the attitudes of society towards health as a fundamental value five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to healthcare workers.

Materials and methods

An anonymous survey was conducted in February 2025 among 69 master’s students in the healthcare management program. Respondents are nurses, midwives, medical laboratory technicians, and X-ray technicians who worked actively during the pandemic in hospitals in the Pleven region.

Results and discussion

The majority of respondents are professionals with over 20 years of work experience (41.3%). The sense of moral and professional duty is the leading motive for continuing to work (82,6%), followed by job satisfaction (58,7%), and in third place is additional pay (39,1%). The belief that our society is not prepared for epidemiological situations is held by more than half of the respondents (69.6%). The public’s requirements for health professionals have increased, but at the same time, they share a low level of trust between consumers and health care providers, and 86.9% believe that “more public trust in health authorities is needed in crises”. According to 65.2% of health professionals, our society has realized that health is the most important value, but there is still a significant percentage of those who disagree (23.9%).

Conclusions

Targeted actions are needed by the health authorities in the country to increase trust between providers and users of health services. In the case of a pandemic, it is crucial to comply with the measures enforced by health authorities.

Key messages

• Despite the numerous losses and severe health, economic, and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large part of our society has realized that health is the most important value.

• There is a need to trust health authorities and maintain their authority in the public eye, and community discipline is key to the success of health measures.