ObjectivesWe have conducted this study to assess
medical students’ empathy and to examine empathy differences by students’
socio-demographic characteristics, including gender, and specialty preference.MethodsWe have conducted a cross-sectional and descriptive
research. Among 595 medical students registered at the Federal University of
Santa Catarina (Brazil) in 2012, we have selected a sample of 320 enrolled in the
first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, and in the last semester of the
course. The response rate obtained was 70.6% (n=226). Data was collected by
using a self-report questionnaire, and the variables analyzed included course
semester, socio-demographic characteristics (such as age, gender, household
monthly income and parents level of education), students’ specialty preference,
and empathy assessed by the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. We have used descriptive
statistics, 95% Confidence Interval for percentages, Student's t-test, and
Analysis of Variance to analyze the data.
ResultsMean empathy among students was (M=119.7, SD=9.9),
with no difference by according to semester
(F(6,219)=1.5, p=.2). Empathy means were higher among females (M=118.3,
SD=10.6) than among males (M=121.0, SD=9.3, t(222)=-2.1, p=.032).
Students who preferred a people-oriented specialty obtained significantly
higher mean scores (M=121.5, SD=8.1) in comparison to students who preferred
technology-oriented specialties (M=118.0, SD=11.3, t(135)=2.4, p=.02).
ConclusionsOur study has found consistently high
scores of empathy among medical students enrolled in all levels of training at
the Federal University of Santa Catarina, and higher empathy among women and
students who intend to pursue a people-oriented specialty. Conclusions on higher
empathy among medical students require further study.