French Public Familiarity and Attitudes toward Clinical Research during the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 18; no. 5; p. 2611
• Main Authors: Schultz, Émilien, Ward, Jeremy K, Atlani-Duault, Laëtitia, Holmes, Seth M, Mancini, Julien
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 05.03.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Attitude; Attitudes; Bacteriology; Biomedical research; Cardiology and cardiovascular system; Clinical trials; Clinical Trials as Topic; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Cross-Sectional Studies; Emerging diseases; Familiarity; France - epidemiology; Health education; Health literacy; Human health and pathology; Humans; Infectious diseases; Life Sciences; Medical research; Microbiology and Parasitology; Pandemics; Parasitology; Perceptions; Pharmaceutical industry; Pharmaceuticals; Physicians; Population; SARS-CoV-2; Scientists; Surveys and Questionnaires; Trends; Vaccines; Virology; France; COVID-19; public attitudes; media coverage; pharmaceutical industry; survey; clinical research
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18052611

The COVID-19 pandemic put clinical research in the media spotlight globally. This article proposes a first measure of familiarity with and attitude toward clinical research in France. Drawing from the "Health Literacy Survey 2019" (HLS19) conducted online between 27 May and 5 June 2020 on a sample of the French adult population (N = 1003), we show that a significant proportion of the French population claimed some familiarity with clinical trials (64.8%) and had positive attitudes (72%) toward them. One of the important findings of this study is that positive attitudes toward clinical research exist side by side with a strong distancing from the pharmaceutical industry. While respondents acknowledged that the pharmaceutical industry plays an important role in clinical research (68.3%), only one-quarter indicated that they trust the industry (25.7%). Positive attitudes toward clinical trials were associated with familiarity with clinical trials (Odds Ratio, OR 2.97 [1.90-4.63]), financial difficulties (OR 0.63 [0.46-0.85]), as well as mistrust of doctors (0.48 [0.27-0.85]) and of scientists (OR 0.62 [0.38-0.99]). Although the French media provided a great deal of information on how clinical research works during the first months of the pandemic, there remains profound mistrust of the pharmaceutical industry in France. This suspicion can undermine crisis management, especially in the areas of vaccine development and preparation for future pandemics.