An assessment of dental students' empathy levels in Malaysia

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the validity and reliability of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Care Provider Student version (JSE-HPS) in a sample of dental students in Malaysia, with the secondary aim of assessing empathy levels in first to final year dental students in public and private universities in Malaysia. Methods: The JSE-HPS was administered to 582 first to fifth (final) year dental students; 441 were enrolled at two public universities and 141 at a private university in Malaysia. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using SPSS® version 18. Results:The JSE-HPS demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.70). A three-factor solution emerged and included 'perspective taking', 'compassionate care' and 'standing in patient's shoes' factors, accounting for 27.7%, 13.9%, and 6.3% of the variance, respectively. The total mean empathy score was 84.11±9.80, where the actual scores ranged from a low of 22.05 to a high of 133.35. Overall, male students (84.97±11.12) were more empathic than female students (83.78±9.24). Fourth-year students were more empathic than students in other undergraduate years, and public university students had significantly higher mean empathy score compared to those enrolled at a private university (84.74 versus 82.13, p=0.001). Conclusions: This study confirms the construct validity and internal consistency of the JSE-HPS for measuring empathy in dental students. Empathy scores among students vary depending on type of university and year of study. Future studies, preferably longitudinal in design should explore changes in empathy among dental students during progression through undergraduate courses.

Empathy Gender in Dental Students in Latin America: An Exploratory and Cross-Sectional Study

“…Additional studies developed with students from different health and geographic areas [28]- [30], agree with the fact that women score higher empathy measures than men, with the exception of a study realized with dental students in Malaysia, in which differences between both genders were not found and men scored absolute values higher than women [31]. In Latin America (LA) some studies were developed about the empathy levels in different schools of dentistry and the results around the gender differences are contradictory.…”

Assessment of Korean Pharmacy Students’ Empathy Using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy

“…The JSE-HPS survey is validated for health care professions, such as nursing, dentistry, and pharmacy. 12,[26][27][28] Three subconstructs underlying empathy in patient-care situations have been proposed and empirically supported: "perspective taking," "compassionate care," and "standing in the patient's shoes." 29 Specifically, this 3-factor structure was supported in Asian student samples, such as Malaysian pharmacy students 28 and Korean medical students, 23 even though a 2-factor structure emerged from a US pharmacy student sample.…”

Level of empathy among dietitians: A pilot study

“…The lack of attention into the emotional component of empathy could be attributed to the inconsistencies in the level of empathy across different ethnicities and gender Ethnicities/culture can play a role in how emotions are felt and expressed in certain situation, hence understanding cultural differences is critical to appreciate emotions and to recognise the role of empathy. It has been suggested that cultural differences exist in emotional arousal level between the east and the west.…”