Empathy in Chinese medical students: psychometric characteristics and differences by gender and year of medical education.
BACKGROUND
In recent years in China, the tense physician-patient relationship has been an outstanding problem. Empathy is one of the fundamental factors enhancing the therapeutic effects of physician-patient relationships and is significantly associated with clinical and academic performance among students.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study used the JSPE-S (The Student Version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy) to assess 902 medical students from 1st year to 4th year at China Medical University. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. We performed an exploratory factor analysis to evaluate the construct validity of the JSPE-S. Group comparisons of empathy scores were conducted via the t-test and one-way ANOVA. Statistic analysis was performed by SPSS 13.0.


RESULTS
The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.83. The three factors emerging in the factor analysis of the JSPE-S are "perspective taking", "compassionate care" and "ability to stand in patients' shoes", which accounted for 48.00%. The mean empathy score was 109.60. The empathy score of medical students had significant differences between different genders (p < 0.05) and academic year level (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
This study provided support for the validity and reliability of the Chinese translated version of the JSPE-S for medical students. Early exposure to clinical training and a curriculum for professional competencies help to enhance the empathy of medical students. We suggest that the curriculum within Chinese medical schools include more teaching on empathy and communicational skills.
The Research Centre for Medical Education, China Medical University, 92 North Second Road, Heping District, Shenyang 110001, China. cmu_vip@126.com.
Deliang
D
Wen
Xiaodan
X
Ma
Honghe
H
Li
Zhifei
Z
Liu
Bensong
B
Xian
Yang
Y
Liu
D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004645:Empathy; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D055815:Young Adult