Effect of Medical Education on Empathy in Osteopathic Medical Students.
BACKGROUND
Empathy is an integral component of the patient-physician relationship and involves a cognitive ability to connect with others in a meaningful fashion. Multiple longitudinal studies have shown that self-reported allopathic medical student empathy declines significantly during year 3. However, to date, only 4 cross-sectional studies have been published on osteopathic medical students' empathy. Whereas studies of allopathic medical students reported a decline in empathy, similar results were not found in osteopathic studies.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate (1) self-reported empathy through years 1 to 3 of osteopathic medical students and (2) whether empathy declines during year 3.


METHODS
Design included cross-sectional and test-retest data collection.


METHODS
Private osteopathic medical school in the Northeast region of the United States.


METHODS
Osteopathic medical students.


METHODS
The Jefferson Scale of Empathy medical student version.


RESULTS
Respondents (N=717) included 383 women (53%) and 334 men (47%). When empathy levels were examined by demographics, the only significant finding was that women reported significantly higher empathy levels than men (112.3 vs 109.3; P<.001). Cross-sectional results indicate that mean empathy levels were significantly lower for third-year students at the end of the year (108.7) compared with first- and second-year students at the beginning of the year (111.3 and 112.4, respectively; P<.05). Test-retest analyses of year 3 indicated significantly lower empathy levels from the beginning to the end of the academic year (111.2 and 108.7, respectively; P<.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Osteopathic medical students' empathy declined significantly during year 3, which is consistent with the findings from allopathic samples but differs from findings from osteopathic samples. More research is needed to build the data on osteopathic medical student samples and to achieve a better understanding of changes in empathy in osteopathic and allopathic medical students.
Adam J
AJ
McTighe
Robert A
RA
DiTomasso
Stephanie
S
Felgoise
Mohammadreza
M
Hojat
D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010021:Osteopathic Medicine / Q000193:education*; D015143:Philadelphia; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012577:Schools, Medical; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*