Empathy in Iranian medical students: A comparison by age, gender, academic performance and specialty preferences

Background: Empathy is an important element of physician-patient communication. Empathy is linked to a number of attributes such as patient treatment compliance and satisfaction, better history taking and physical examination and therefore achieving better clinical outcomes. Previous research indicates that self-reported empathy among medical students declines during the course of their medical education and this decrease in empathy particularly happens when students enter clinical training. Very limited data is available on the concept of empathy among Iranian medical students. The aim of the present study was to investigate empathy among Iranian medical students and the possible differences between students of different levels of medical education. Methods: The data were collected using convenient sampling. The Jefferson Questionnaire of Physicians Empathy-student version as well as a demographic questionnaire was distributed among 500 medical students in different levels of medical education at medical school of Iran University of Medical Sciences. Results: Response rate was 91.8% (459/500). Of 459 responders, 150 were first and second year students (Basic sciences), 170 were third to fifth year students (trainees) and 139 sixth and seventh year students (Interns). Sixty nine percent (n=318) were female and 31% (n=141) male. The mean score (SD) of empathy was 101 (15.6). The difference between mean score of empathy of female and male medical students was not significant (101.8 in females vs. 100 in males). The mean score of empathy in "interns" was significantly lower than both "trainees" and "basic sciences students" (96.2, 102 and 104, respectively p<0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the empathy score of interns is significantly lower than other medical students. A longitudinal study is needed to test variations in students’ empathy throughout medical school.