Comparative cross-sectional study of empathy among first year and final year medical students in Jimma University, Ethiopia: Steady state of the heart and opening of the eyes

Abstract

BackgroundThere is general consent that empathy is crucial for the physician-patient relationship and thus an important issue in medical education. This comparative study was designed to examine the differences in empathy between first year and final year medical students in Jimma University, Ethiopia.Methods A comparative cross-sectional study among 131 first year and 106 final year medical students was conducted in Jimma University, Ethiopia on academic year 2010/11. The study subjects were selected using simple random sampling technique from the list of the students. Study participation was voluntary. The Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) was used for the detection of “heart-reading”, i.e. emotional empathy and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RME-R test) to evaluate “mind-reading”, i.e. cognitive empathy. We performed t-test to compare the mean difference in empathy and RME-R scores between the two groups of students. A linear regression was computed to identify potential factors influencing the BEES and RME-R.ResultsOut of the total 237 students, 207 (87.3%) were males. The mean age of first year and final year students was 19.3 ± 1.1 and 24.0 ± 1.4 years respectively. First year students have scored 40.6 ± 23.8 while final year students scored 41.5 ± 20.8 mean in the BEES measuring emotional empathy score. However, this difference was not statistically significant (t = −0.30, df = 231, P-value >0.05). Final year students had significantly higher mean cognitive empathy score (17.8 ± 4.5) than first year students (14.4 ± 4.8) [β = 2.7, 95%CI (1.20, 4.13)]. Males had scored lower cognitive [β = −2.5, 95%CI (−4.37, −0.66)] and emotional empathy [β = −12.0, 95%CI (−21.66, −5.46)].ConclusionsLow emotional (BEES) and cognitive empathy sores were found in first year and final year students of Jimma University could have implications on the medical education curricula. Medical education targeted at enhancing emotional empathy and increasing cognitive empathy is required by segmenting with gender for effective physician-patient interaction. The influence of empathy on clinical competence should be studied using more rigorous design.

Psychometric Evaluation of the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ Test With Samples of Different Ages From a Polish Population

“…This indicates acceptable internal consistency of the RMET in Poland; thus, it is a reliable tool that measures mindreading in adults. Reliability, which was reported in past studies of the RMET, was .58 to .70 (Voracek & Dressler, 2006;Harkness et al, 2010;Dehning, Girma, Gasperi, Meyer, Tesfaye, & Siebeck, 2012;Vellante, Baron-Cohen, Melis, Petretto, Masala, & Preti). Additionally, the test-retest stability of the Polish version of RMET was acceptable, with interclass correlation coefficients equaling 0.886.…”

“…On the basis of the Empathy Quotient results, it is difficult to separate cognitive and affective empathy, with the former being theoretically related to the Theory of Mind (Rogers et al, 2007). Therefore, it is not surprising that the majority of validation studies did not report the analysis of theoretical convergence between the Empathy Quotient and the RMET (Ethiopian version, Dehning et al, 2012;Hungarian version, Kelemen, Keri, Must, Benedek, & Janka 2004;Japanese version, Kunihira, Senju, Dairoku, Wakabayashi, & Hasegawa 2006;Turkish version, Yildirom et al, 2011;Swedish version, Hallerbäck, Lugnegard, Hjarthag, & Gillberg, 2009). …”

Cross sectional assessment of empathy among undergraduates from a medical college

“…Dehning et al in a study of Ethiopian medical students also had found that males had lower empathy than females. 24 However, when compared semester wise the results are more interesting (Table 5). There is no significant difference among female students in different semesters it thereby implying that the decline in empathy scores in third and seventh semester (those entering the fourth year) is entirely because of significant decline in empathy scores among male students.…”

The relationship between subjective well-being and empathy among Turkish medical students

“…Similar results were obtained from many previous studies (Hojat et al 2004;Kliszcz et al 2006;Kataoka et al 2009;Hojat et al 2009b;Neumann et al 2011;Quince et al 2011;Tavakol et al 2011;Chen et al 2012;Paro et al 2012;Hasan et al 2013;Wen et al 2013;Leombruni et al 2014;Youssef et al 2014;Hojat & Gonnella 2015) . However some studies did not find such kind of differences (Colliver et al 2010;Rahimi-Madiseh et al 2010;Dehning et al 2012). Studies from Turkey revealed a decline in empathy throughout the medical study years (Gonullu & Oztuna 2012;Sen et al 2014).…”