Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, NY 11794, USA.
Research Unit of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, J.B. Winsløws Vej 9, DK-5000 Odense C, Denmark.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Mar 2;15(3):433. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15030433.
: Previous studies have demonstrated that high levels of physician empathy may be correlated with improved patient health outcomes and high physician job satisfaction. Knowledge about variation in empathy and related general practitioner (GP) characteristics may allow for a more informed approach to improve empathy among GPs. : Our objective is to measure and analyze variation in physician empathy and its association with GP demographic, professional, and job satisfaction characteristics. : 464 Danish GPs responded to a survey containing the Danish version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Health Professionals (JSE-HP) and questions related to their demographic, professional and job satisfaction characteristics. Descriptive statistics and a quantile plot of the ordered empathy scores were used to describe empathy variation. In addition, random-effect logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the association between empathy levels and the included GP characteristics. : Empathy scores were negatively skewed with a mean score of 117.9 and a standard deviation of 10.1 within a range from 99 (p5) to 135 (p95). GPs aged 45-54 years and GPs who are not employed outside of their practice were less likely to have high empathy scores (≥120). Neither gender, nor length of time since specialization, length of time in current practice, practice type, practice location, or job satisfaction was associated with odds of having high physician empathy. However, odds of having a high empathy score were higher for GPs who stated that the physician-patient relationship and interaction with colleagues has a high contribution to job satisfaction compared to the reference groups (low and medium contribution of these factors). This was also the trend for GPs who stated a high contribution to job satisfaction from intellectual stimulation. In contrast, high contribution of economic profit and prestige did not contribute to increased odds of having a high empathy score. : Albeit generally high, we observed substantial variation in physician empathy levels among this population of Danish GPs. This variation is positively associated with values of interpersonal relationships and interaction with colleagues, and negatively associated with middle age (45-54 years) and lack of outside employment. There is room to increase GP physician empathy via educational and organizational interventions, and consequently, to improve healthcare quality and outcomes.
: 先前的研究表明，医生的同理心水平较高可能与患者健康状况的改善和医生工作满意度的提高有关。了解同理心的差异及其与全科医生（GP）特征的关系，可以使我们更有针对性地提高全科医生的同理心。
: 我们的目的是衡量和分析医生同理心的差异及其与 GP 人口统计学、专业和工作满意度特征的关系。
: 464 名丹麦全科医生对一项调查做出了回应，该调查包含丹麦版的《杰斐逊同理心健康专业人员量表》（JSE-HP）和与他们的人口统计学、专业和工作满意度特征相关的问题。使用描述性统计和有序同理心得分的分位数图来描述同理心的差异。此外，还进行了随机效应逻辑回归分析，以探讨同理心水平与所包括的 GP 特征之间的关系。
: 同理心得分呈负偏态分布，均值为 117.9，标准差为 10.1，范围从 99（p5）到 135（p95）。45-54 岁的全科医生和不在诊所外工作的全科医生不太可能具有较高的同理心得分（≥120）。无论是性别、专业后时间长短、当前实践时间长短、实践类型、实践地点还是工作满意度，都与具有高医生同理心的几率无关。然而，与低和中贡献这些因素的参考组相比，那些认为医患关系和与同事的互动对工作满意度有高贡献的全科医生具有更高的高分可能性（高贡献）。对于那些认为智力刺激对工作满意度有高贡献的全科医生来说，也有这种趋势。相比之下，经济利润和声望的高贡献并不能增加具有高分可能性的几率。
: 尽管总体上较高，但我们观察到丹麦全科医生群体中医生同理心水平存在很大差异。这种差异与人际关系和与同事互动的价值观呈正相关，与中年（45-54 岁）和缺乏外部就业呈负相关。通过教育和组织干预提高全科医生的同理心水平还有很大的空间，从而提高医疗保健质量和结果。
