Laboratory of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology (Medical Law and Ethics), School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University, University Campus, 541 24, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Department of Economics, School of Economics and Regional Studies, University of Macedonia, Egnatia Str 156, 546 36, Thessaloniki, Greece.
BMC Psychol. 2022 May 2;10(1):113. doi: 10.1186/s40359-022-00824-6.
Empathy is an important key driver of any therapeutic relationship. It is beneficial for both physicians and patients. Enhancing physician's empathy should be an important goal of medical education. As there was a literature gap regarding the topic of empathy among medical students in Greece, this study aimed to contribute to filling this gap.
A cross-sectional study was conducted. A socio-demographic questionnaire and the 52-item Greek version of the Toronto composite empathy scale (TCES) for measuring the cognitive and emotional aspects of empathy in both personal and professional life was administered to all the medical students in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in Greece. Descriptive statistics were displayed for demographics. The associations of the variables were quantified by Chi-2 independence tests and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire was determined by Cronbach's α, Hotelling's T-Squared Test, and Pearson correlation. Paired and Independent Sample T-Tests and One-way ANOVAs indicated statistically significant mean differences among the variables or subgroups of the variables.
The 52-item TCES, 26 for the personal (Per) setting and another 26 for professional (Pro) life, equally divided into cognitive (Cog) and emotional (Emo) empathy in each case. The overall reliability of the TCES questionnaire was found to be high (Cronbach's α = 0.895, significant positive correlations between the subscales). The mean total score of empathy showed that students had a moderately high empathy. Further, there was a statistically significant difference in means between the Per-Cog and Per-Emo settings (p < 0.001), the Pro-Cog and Pro-Emo (p < 0.001), the Per-Cog and Pro-Cog (p = 0.004), and the Per-Emo and Pro-Emo (p < 0.001). Females had significantly higher empathy scores (mean score 208.04) than males (192.5) on the Per-Cog, Per-Emo and Pro-Emo subscales. Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between empathy and factors such as love for animals, interest in medical ethics, belief in God, having an ill person in the family, class year or carrier intention.
The TCES is applicable to medical students. For the most part our findings were consistent with previous literature. However, we identified some nuances that might draw researchers' attention. The results of this study may contribute to plan interventions in the curriculum to enhance empathy in the medical students.
同理心是任何治疗关系的重要关键因素。它对医生和患者都有益。增强医生的同理心应该是医学教育的一个重要目标。由于希腊医学生同理心方面的文献存在空白，因此本研究旨在填补这一空白。
本研究采用横断面研究。对希腊雅典大学的所有医学生进行了问卷调查，内容包括人口统计学问卷和 52 项多伦多综合同理心量表（TCES），用于测量个人和专业生活中的同理心认知和情感方面。展示了人口统计学数据的描述性统计。通过卡方独立性检验和皮尔逊相关系数来量化变量之间的关联。通过 Cronbach's α、Hotelling's T-Squared Test 和 Pearson 相关来确定问卷的信度和效度。配对和独立样本 T 检验以及单因素方差分析表明，变量之间或变量的分组之间存在统计学上显著的均值差异。
TCES 共有 52 项，其中 26 项用于个人（Per）环境，26 项用于专业（Pro）生活，每项均分为认知（Cog）和情感（Emo）同理心。TCES 问卷的整体信度被发现很高（Cronbach's α=0.895，各分量表之间存在显著正相关）。同理心的总分平均值表明学生具有中等高度的同理心。此外，在 Per-Cog 和 Per-Emo 环境之间（p<0.001）、Pro-Cog 和 Pro-Emo 之间（p<0.001）、Per-Cog 和 Pro-Cog 之间（p=0.004）以及 Per-Emo 和 Pro-Emo 之间（p<0.001）存在统计学上的显著差异。在 Per-Cog、Per-Emo 和 Pro-Emo 分量表上，女性的同理心得分（平均得分 208.04）明显高于男性（192.5）。此外，还发现同理心与一些因素之间存在正相关，如对动物的喜爱、对医学伦理的兴趣、对上帝的信仰、家中有病人、班级年级或职业意向。
TCES 适用于医学生。我们的研究结果在很大程度上与以往的文献一致。然而，我们发现了一些可能引起研究人员注意的细微差别。本研究的结果可能有助于计划课程干预措施，以增强医学生的同理心。
