Abstract

VIDAL MADERA ANAYA, Meisser; TIRADO AMADOR, Lesbia Rosa  and  GONZALEZ MARTINEZ, Farith. Factors related to empathy in medical students at the University of Cartagena. Rev Clin Med Fam [online]. 2015, vol.8, n.3, pp.185-192. ISSN 2386-8201.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S1699-695X2015000300003.

Objective: To determine empathy levels and its relationship with sociodemographic, academic and family factors in medical students. Design: Cross-sectional study. Location: University of Cartagena (Colombia). Participants: 256 medical students at the University of Cartagena, randomly selected. Main measures: A questionnaire was applied that asked about sociodemographic, family and academic factors and the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy version S. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to assess the normality assumption, and T Student and Anova tests were used to establish relationship among variables (p<0.05). Results: The average global empathy was 114.3 ± 12.8 points; we found statistically significant differences between the average global empathy with sex (p=0.0033), family functioning (p=0.0017), Medicine as first choice study (p=0.03), academic performance (p=0.0464) and cumulative grade point average (p=0.003; r = 0.19). Conclusions: The levels of empathy in medical students may vary depending on gender, family functioning, first choice of study, academic average and performance; which makes it imperative to implement pedagogical strategies in human areas involving students' families, and therefore improving the levels of empathy and health care.

Keywords : Empathy; Medical Students; Physician-Patient Relations.

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