Levels of empathy in dental students at Universidad San Sebastián in Concepción, Chile (Chile)

Abstract

Introducción. La formación de los futuros odontólogos debe estar en sintonía con el desarrollo empático del alumno, por tanto, es necesario realizar un diagnóstico del comportamiento de la empatía.Objetivo. Medir los niveles de empatía en los estudiantes de Odontología de la Universidad San Sebastián, sede Concepción, Chile, según género y año académico.Materiales y métodos. Se aplicó la Escala de Empatía Médica de Jefferson (EEMJ) para estudiantes de medicina (versión en español), adaptada y validada para estudiantes de odontología en 2016. La muestra estuvo constituida por 462 estudiantes de primero a quinto año. Los datos fueron comparados mediante un análisis de varianza trifactorial (modelo III).Resultados. En el factor “años académicos” se observó que las medias en el segundo año son menores que en el primero, pero a partir de tercer año aumentan los niveles de empatía manteniéndose constantes en los restantes años académicos. En el factor “género”, el femenino tuvo valores medios de empatía superiores al masculino.Conclusión. Los factores estudiados (año académico y género) poco explican la variación existente en la empatía de los estudiantes analizados. Es probable que existan otros factores que influyen sobre los niveles de empatía y que permitirían explicar mejor el comportamiento de los valores estimados.

Appraisal of empathy among dental interns and postgraduate students at King Abdulaziz University: A cross‐sectional study

“…46 Additionally, females' biological nature releases oxytocin hormone that has been related to affection and protection. 32 We found that the female postgraduate students who spent maximally four years in their residency had significantly high empathy levels than the males. This is in agreement with our hypothesis.…”

“…Since childhood, females, and males are taught to convey their feelings differently: females are raised towards feelings and their variations, which yields an obligation to ponder the emotions of others 46 . Additionally, females’ biological nature releases oxytocin hormone that has been related to affection and protection 32 . We found that the female postgraduate students who spent maximally four years in their residency had significantly high empathy levels than the males.…”

“…Empathy erosion is a state that affects dental students due to stress and increased workload. 31,32 Multiple factors affect empathy levels such as gender, degree of education, background, perception, medical education system, training, interest in specialties, and intellect level of health professionals. 12 There is also speculation that there are not enough teaching and learning opportunities for dental students to develop their empathy or soft skills.…”

“…Empathy erosion is a state that affects dental students due to stress and increased workload 31,32 . Multiple factors affect empathy levels such as gender, degree of education, background, perception, medical education system, training, interest in specialties, and intellect level of health professionals 12 .…”

An assessment of empathy levels of dental students’ in Nepal: A cross-sectional comparative study

“…Although the mean empathy level score was more in males than females the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.485) which was similar to other studies 5,8,11 . In contrast, some studies 9,12 showed that male students had a comparatively higher empathy score than female dental students whereas other studies 4,7,13 reported that females score higher than males. Empathy is a natural human emotion; gender differences may be due to their genetic differences and differences in socialization, and empathy is merely based on motivation rather than capability 12 .…”