Altruism, an attitude of unselfish concern for others – an analytical cross sectional study among the Medical and Engineering students in Bangalore

INTRODUCTION: Altruism is disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others. Intentional and voluntary actions that aim to enhance the welfare of another person in the absence of any external reward. With the background of increasing mistrust between the medical profession, media, and the public and increasing incidents of violence against doctors in India, there is a growing feeling that altruism in medicine, if not dying is at least declining. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To assess altruistic attitudes among Medical and Engineering students in a Medical and Engineering College in Bangalore and to determine the factors influencing altruistic behavior among these students. METHODOLOGY: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 medical and 200 engineering students studying in medical and engineering college, respectively. The survey contained a structured pre-validated questionnaire containing general information and the Altruism personality scale items for measuring altruistic tendency in students. RESULT: Among the participants from both the backgrounds doing simple altruistic acts, were more frequent than risk taking altruistic acts. Altruism deceases with increasing years of study in medical college. CONCLUSION: Good Medicine stands on the basis of interactions between people. Few changes in the existing curriculum for medical professionalism which should emphasize on skills such as empathy towards patients, communication, good doctor patient relationship, emotional intelligence and professional ethics and values is desired. Doing this study in a medical and engineering college setting would introduce the topic of altruism among the students and give them a chance to self-analyze their altruistic nature and bring about positive changes towards human altruism.