Examining the Institutional Medical Mistrust Scale (IMMS) in the COVID-19 Pandemic, United States, 2022 (ICPSR 39469)

Version Date: Feb 16, 2026

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
Vence Bonham, United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Human Genome Research Institute; Ashley Buscetta, United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Cancer Institute

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39469.v1

Version V1

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Summary

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.

Citation

Bonham, Vence, and Buscetta, Ashley. Examining the Institutional Medical Mistrust Scale (IMMS) in the COVID-19 Pandemic, United States, 2022. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2026-02-16. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39469.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Human Genome Research Institute (ZIA HG200403-06)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

State

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2022

Data Collection Notes

  1. Based on ICPSR review of the P.I. Documentation and crosstabs in this release, there appear to have been 3 experiments conducted in the data collection instrument that varied the display order of questions and the response options within those questions, as laid out below:

    Section Order Experiment: Based on crosstabs of the 3 variables (Q19_Q39_order, Q44_45_order, and Q46_48_order) these 3 variables appear to describe which of the sections in their names were displayed first, second, and third to the respondent. Notably, both Q19_Q39_order and Q46_48_order have 100% of responses in "Shown third". No further information was provided.

    Sub-Section Order Experiment: Based on crosstabs of the 3 variables (Q19_Q39_order, Q44_45_order, and Q46_48_order), the variables in the format QXX_QYY such as Q26_Q32 appear to describe which of the sub-sections in their name were displayed in order within the larger section (eg. for Q26_Q32 = "Shown first", questions Q26 through Q32 were shown first within the Q19 through Q39 section).

    Response Option Display Order Experiment: Based on variable labels, variables in a similar format to Q17_DO_1, Q18_DO_Q18_1, and Q18_ADO_1 appear to describe which response options were displayed in specific positions to the respondent.

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Study Purpose

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.

Sample

A cohort of participants recruited from a contracted third-party company, Ipsos, from their existing research panel (KnowledgePanel).

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Adults in the United States, 18 years of age or older.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Presence of Common Scales

Institutional Medical Mistrust Scale

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Original Release Date

2026-02-16

Version History

2026-02-16 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Performed consistency checks.
  • Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.

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Weight

After data collection was completed, design weights were adjusted to account for any differential nonresponse that may have occurred. Depending on the specific target population for a given study, geodemographic distributions for the corresponding population are obtained from the CPS, the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), or in certain instances from the weighted KnowledgePanel profile data. For this purpose, an iterative proportional fitting (raking) procedure was used to produce the final weights. In the final step, calculated weights were examined to identify and, if necessary, trim outliers at the extreme upper and lower tails of the weight distribution. The resulting weights (WEIGHT_NEW) are then scaled to aggregate to the total sample size of all eligible respondents.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • ICPSR usually offers files in multiple formats for researchers to be able to access data and documentation in formats that work well within their needs. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR’s Accessibility Center.