Empathy unmasked: the compassion quotient of dental students

Despite an empathic doctor patient relationship being of utmost importance to improve health care outcomes, this aspect is scarcely explored in dental students of Pakistan. This primary objective of the present study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy- Health Professions Student (JSE- HPS) version in a sample of Pakistani dental students. The study also compared the differences in empathy levels of dental students studying in different academic years.

This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 304 students from first to final year from selected 02 private and 02 public dental colleges of Karachi, Pakistan from December 2021- January 2022. The self-administered Jefferson Scale of Empathy- Health Professions Student (JSE-HPS) version was used for data collection. This questionnaire includes 20 items that can be answered on a 7-point Likert scale. After attendance sheets were obtained, random student names were marked, and questionnaire distributed by hand to these students. All forms were collected right after to maximize response rate.

A total of 304 forms with complete data were returned, a response rate of 86.9%. Females (97.79 ± 15 94) were more empathetic than males (94.16 ± 12.13) (p = 0.001). Students of third-year were the most empathetic (p = 0.000). Internal consistency of questionnaire was acceptable (Cronbach's α- 0.77). Factor analysis revealed factor related to belief that patient's perspectives improve health outcome had 14 items with factor coefficient > 0.4 contributing to largest proportion of variance (23.15%).

Our study shows JSE- HPS to have acceptable internal consistency. Structural validity of the scale evaluated by confirmatory factor analysis reported results that were in concordance to those suggested by developers of this scale. In our study population, like other studies, females were more empathic than males. Third-year dental students were more empathetic than students of other undergraduate years.