Clinical Empathy and Its Correlates Among Indian Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study of Bihar

Abstract

BackgroundClinical empathy is standing in the patient's shoes and perceiving his/her emotions to experience the patient's feelings. Practicing empathy ensures an enticing prospect in patient care. This study was done among undergraduate medical students to assess their empathy level and the factors affecting it. MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study conducted with 400 medical students in Bihar, India. Students not willing to participate were excluded from the study. The coding system was designed to strictly maintain anonymity. The study tools included the Jefferson Scale for Physician Empathy -Student Version (JSPES), a semistructured questionnaire on the general profile, a perceived stress scale (PSS), and a multidimensional scale of perceived social support (MSPSS). Participants were allotted 20 minutes to complete the test and submit their responses. Results were expressed as means and standard deviations (SDs), with appropriate statistical tests applied. The data were presented in tables, and statistical significance was checked at a 5% level. All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS software. ResultsThe arithmetic mean (±SD) of empathy scores was 99.87±14.71. Empathy was found to be positively correlated with social support and negatively with stress. The factors found to be significantly associated with empathy on univariate analysis were subjected to stepwise multiple linear regression, which provided a six-factor model comprising gender, choice of future specialty, stress, social support, residence, substance abuse, and stay in hospital as an attendant. ConclusionsStress and social support were found to be significant predictors of empathy. The female gender, living in urban areas, and having previous experience of hospital stay as an attendant of a patient were positively associated with empathy. In contrast, choosing a technical branch as a future specialty and substance abuse were negatively associated with empathy. Stress management, enhancement of social support, and avoidance of habit-forming substances could be beneficial in improving empathy among doctors. Since we could only identify a few factors, we recommend further studies on this topic to explore other factors.

The Level of Empathy Among Medical Students at the University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

“…The present study also found that the mean total empathy score was significantly higher for students who intended to specialize in people-oriented fields compared to those who desired to specialize in procedureoriented specialties. This finding is consistent with previous studies that have examined this relationship [10,12,21,25,28,29]. However, in the study by Chatterjee et al [20], the difference was marginally nonsignificant.…”

“…Regarding the comparison of mean empathy scores across the six academic years, the present study found no significant differences. These findings are consistent with those of previous studies [21][22][23]. However, our results contrast with those of Kataoka et al [26], who reported significantly higher mean total scores for students in years two, three, five, and six compared to those in year one.…”

“…The mean total empathy score in our cohort was 99.05 ± 13.75, which is close to the reported total empathy score in comparable studies. Studies from India reported mean total empathy scores of 96.01 ± 14.56 [20] and 99.87 ± 14.71 [21] among undergraduate students from medical colleges in Delhi and Bihar, respectively, whereas two studies from Sukkur and Karachi, Pakistan, reported mean empathy scores of 98.11 ± 12.31 [12] and 101.9 ± 16.3 [22], respectively. Some studies have reported higher mean total empathy scores among medical students, such as those from Australia (109.07 ± 14.937) [23], South Korea (105.48 ± 14.67) [24], and Brazil (119.7 ± 9.9) [25].…”

The Greek Jefferson Scale of Empathy—Medical Student Version (JSE-S): Psychometric Properties and Its Associated Factors

“…This finding is consistent with the vast majority of prior studies. Many studies conducted across various cultures reported statistically significant differences in overall empathy scores between male and female students and confirmed that female medical students are more empathetic than their male counterparts [ 10 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 25 , 29 , 33 , 37 , 55 , 57 , 58 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 76 , 83 , 84 , 89 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 ]. As mentioned above, this discrepancy changes across the academic years.…”

“…This finding is in line with the minority of prior studies. Some studies confirm that undergraduate medical students who are inclined to choose “specialties that require continuous and prolonged encounters with patients” (“people-oriented” specialties, such as pediatrics, family medicine, general internal medicine, and psychiatry) receive significantly higher empathy scores than those inclined to choose specialties that do not require continuous and prolonged encounters with patients (“technology/procedure-oriented” specialties, such as pathology, radiology, anesthesiology, and surgical specialties) [ 14 , 28 , 37 , 41 , 50 , 58 , 60 , 64 , 67 , 68 , 76 , 81 , 84 , 85 , 101 , 109 ]. Luna et al combined gender and career preference and concluded: “men, preference for technology-oriented specialty, less empathy.…”