Comparison of Self-Reported Empathy Levels among Dental Undergraduate Students in Northern India: A
Sonali Saha1, Ridhi Narang2, Vikram Pal Aggarwal3
1Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Sardar Patel Post Graduate Institute of Dental and Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Context:
Empathy is one of the fundamentals of communication relevant within the practice of dentistry, and the research is limited in this field.
Aims:
The present study was conducted to assess the self-reported empathy levels among dental undergraduate students in Lucknow city of Northern India.
Settings And Design:
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among three dental colleges of Lucknow city during July 2019-September 2019.
Subjects And Methods:
E-survey link was circulated among 790 students through e-mails. It has two parts. The first part included sociodemographic information, wherein the second part, the empathy level of students was assessed using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-Health Profession Students Version Questionnaire. The possible score range is 20-140: the higher the mean score, the higher the self-reported empathy level.
Statistical Analysis Used:
The data collected were analyzed using SPSS software version 24. Chi-square test was used to test gender distribution differences among different years. One-way analysis of variance including post hoc tests was used to compare the differences between study variables.
Results:
The mean ± standard deviation empathy score was 92.55 ± 11.85, 91.85 ± 12.23, 93.25 ± 11.24, 93.37 ± 12.31, and 88.34 ± 12.01 among the first-year, second-year, third-year, final-year, and interns' students, respectively, with a statistically significant difference.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded from the results of the present study that the mean empathy score was highest among final-year students which is suggestive of the impact of education in behavioral sciences.
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