Exploring the effects of coproduction on citizen trust in government a cross-national comparison of community-based diabetes prevention programmes in Thailand and the United States

ABSTRACT

Recently, coproduction has become important in government thinking about new ways of delivering public health services. An equal and reciprocal relationship caused by coproduction is expected to enhance citizens’ trust in the health systems. However, there is still an ongoing debate about whether coproduction can help enhance citizen trust in government institutions. This study engages in the debate by analysing data from a comparative survey of citizens from a province in Northeast Thailand and a county in Northeast Illinois. In both jurisdictions, citizens have been encouraged to coproduce public health programmes to control and prevent various illnesses, particularly diabetes. The findings indicated that in general coproduction of diabetes-related programmes increased citizen trust in the local public health authorities. However, coproduction of advanced preventive programmes, such as diabetic foot ulcer treatment, was found to decrease citizen trust.

KEYWORDS:

• Coproduction
• local public health management
• trust in government
• population health management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Local Government Promotion Foundation of Thailand [LGP1_2018];

Notes on contributors

Tatchalerm Sudhipongpracha

Tatchalerm Sudhipongpracha is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Public Health, Thammasat University, has taught and written extensively on local government, community development, and public health policy. He currently serves on the National Sub-committees on Fiscal Decentralization and Local Government Development in Thailand.