Limitations and Strengths
Limitations of our study are that a small proportion of surveys were excluded that failed quality control (Recapcha), and representativeness of online survey takers is unknown. Our findings may not be generalizable to people who do not use the internet. However, since our focus is the impact of online communications on health disparities, the primary target audience is internet users. Additionally, all the video presenters were men and the clinicians were physicians, so we cannot assess the impact of gender, or trust in other types of health professionals (eg, nurses). Furthermore, we did not collect data on social determinants of health or geography, so we are unable to determine whether trust varied by these factors. Strengths of our study include it being the first randomized trial to our knowledge comparing trust in health-related videos according to the presenter’s race and qualifications.