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

dc.creator	Dehning Sandra
dc.creator	Girma Eshetu
dc.creator	Gasperi Sarah
dc.creator	Meyer Sebastian
dc.creator	Tesfaye Markos
dc.creator	Siebeck Matthias
dc.date	2012-05-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:33:01Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:33:01Z
dc.identifier	10.1186/1472-6920-12-34
dc.identifier	1472-6920
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/abbd8b20ae8d4057b7d29ed5e7c798f4
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/22608
dc.description	<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There 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.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p> 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 <it>t</it>-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.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out 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)].</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Low 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.</p>
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	BioMed Central
dc.relation	http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/12/34
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1472-6920
dc.rights	CC BY
dc.source	BMC Medical Education, Vol 12, Iss 1, p 34 (2012)
dc.subject	Cognitive empathy
dc.subject	Emotional empathy
dc.subject	Medical education
dc.subject	Jimma University
dc.subject	Medicine (General)
dc.subject	R5-920
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	R
dc.subject	DOAJ:Medicine (General)
dc.subject	DOAJ:Health Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Medicine (General)
dc.subject	R5-920
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	R
dc.subject	DOAJ:Medicine (General)
dc.subject	DOAJ:Health Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Medicine (General)
dc.subject	R5-920
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	R
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Medicine (General)
dc.subject	R5-920
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	R
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Medicine (General)
dc.subject	R5-920
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	R
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	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
dc.type	article