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Relationship of mental health and burnout with empathy among medical students in Thailand: A multicenter cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: To explore mental health, burnout, and the factors associated with the level of empathy among Thai medical students. BACKGROUND: Empathy is an important component of a satisfactory physician-patient relationship. However, distress, including burnout and lack of personal well-being, are r...

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Autores principales: Pitanupong, Jarurin, Sathaporn, Katti, Ittasakul, Pichai, Karawekpanyawong, Nuntaporn
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9815634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36602955
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279564
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author Pitanupong, Jarurin
Sathaporn, Katti
Ittasakul, Pichai
Karawekpanyawong, Nuntaporn
author_facet Pitanupong, Jarurin
Sathaporn, Katti
Ittasakul, Pichai
Karawekpanyawong, Nuntaporn
author_sort Pitanupong, Jarurin
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To explore mental health, burnout, and the factors associated with the level of empathy among Thai medical students. BACKGROUND: Empathy is an important component of a satisfactory physician-patient relationship. However, distress, including burnout and lack of personal well-being, are recognized to affect a lower level of empathy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study surveyed sixth-year medical students at three faculties of medicine in Thailand at the end of the 2020 academic year. The questionnaires utilized were: 1) Personal and demographic information questionnaire, 2) Thai Mental Health Indicator-15, 3) The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Thai version, and 4) The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. All data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and factors associated with empathy level were analyzed via the Chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test, logistic regression., and linear regression. RESULTS: There were 336 respondents with a response rate of 70.3%. The majority were female (61.9%). Most participants reported a below-average level of empathy (61%) with a median score (IQR) of 43 (39–40). Assessment of emotion comprehension in others and altruism had the highest median empathy subgroup scores, whereas behaviors engaging higher-order empathic responses had the lowest median empathy subgroup score. One-third of participants (32.1%) had poor mental health, and two-thirds (62.8%) reported a high level of emotional exhaustion even though most of them perceived having a high level of personal accomplishment (97%). The multivariate analysis indicated that mental health was statistically significantly associated with the level of empathy. The participants with higher levels of depersonalization had statistically lower scores of demonstrating appropriate sensitivity, altruism, and behaviors engaging higher-order empathic responding. CONCLUSIONS: Most medical students had below-average empathy levels, and two-thirds of them had high emotional exhaustion levels, yet most of them reported having a high level of personal accomplishment and good mental health. There was an association between mental health and the level of empathy. Higher levels of depersonalization related to lower scores of demonstrating sensitivity, altruism, and behaviors responding. Therefore, medical educators should pay close attention to promoting good mental health among medical students.
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spelling pubmed-98156342023-01-06 Relationship of mental health and burnout with empathy among medical students in Thailand: A multicenter cross-sectional study Pitanupong, Jarurin Sathaporn, Katti Ittasakul, Pichai Karawekpanyawong, Nuntaporn PLoS One Research Article OBJECTIVES: To explore mental health, burnout, and the factors associated with the level of empathy among Thai medical students. BACKGROUND: Empathy is an important component of a satisfactory physician-patient relationship. However, distress, including burnout and lack of personal well-being, are recognized to affect a lower level of empathy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study surveyed sixth-year medical students at three faculties of medicine in Thailand at the end of the 2020 academic year. The questionnaires utilized were: 1) Personal and demographic information questionnaire, 2) Thai Mental Health Indicator-15, 3) The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Thai version, and 4) The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. All data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and factors associated with empathy level were analyzed via the Chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test, logistic regression., and linear regression. RESULTS: There were 336 respondents with a response rate of 70.3%. The majority were female (61.9%). Most participants reported a below-average level of empathy (61%) with a median score (IQR) of 43 (39–40). Assessment of emotion comprehension in others and altruism had the highest median empathy subgroup scores, whereas behaviors engaging higher-order empathic responses had the lowest median empathy subgroup score. One-third of participants (32.1%) had poor mental health, and two-thirds (62.8%) reported a high level of emotional exhaustion even though most of them perceived having a high level of personal accomplishment (97%). The multivariate analysis indicated that mental health was statistically significantly associated with the level of empathy. The participants with higher levels of depersonalization had statistically lower scores of demonstrating appropriate sensitivity, altruism, and behaviors engaging higher-order empathic responding. CONCLUSIONS: Most medical students had below-average empathy levels, and two-thirds of them had high emotional exhaustion levels, yet most of them reported having a high level of personal accomplishment and good mental health. There was an association between mental health and the level of empathy. Higher levels of depersonalization related to lower scores of demonstrating sensitivity, altruism, and behaviors responding. Therefore, medical educators should pay close attention to promoting good mental health among medical students. Public Library of Science 2023-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC9815634/ /pubmed/36602955 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279564 Text en © 2023 Pitanupong et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Pitanupong, Jarurin
Sathaporn, Katti
Ittasakul, Pichai
Karawekpanyawong, Nuntaporn
Relationship of mental health and burnout with empathy among medical students in Thailand: A multicenter cross-sectional study
title Relationship of mental health and burnout with empathy among medical students in Thailand: A multicenter cross-sectional study
title_full Relationship of mental health and burnout with empathy among medical students in Thailand: A multicenter cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Relationship of mental health and burnout with empathy among medical students in Thailand: A multicenter cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Relationship of mental health and burnout with empathy among medical students in Thailand: A multicenter cross-sectional study
title_short Relationship of mental health and burnout with empathy among medical students in Thailand: A multicenter cross-sectional study
title_sort relationship of mental health and burnout with empathy among medical students in thailand: a multicenter cross-sectional study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9815634/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36602955
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279564
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