Assessing self-reported empathy among chiropractic students at a South African university

Empathy is an essential interpersonal skill underpinning patient-centered and biopsychosocial approaches that are globally advocated for in musculoskeletal health care for better patient outcomes. This study aimed to gauge chiropractic students' self-reported empathy levels at a South African university.

The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) was distributed to Bachelor of Health Sciences (BHSc) and Master of Health Sciences (MHSc) chiropractic students at the University of Johannesburg between February 26, 2024 to March 6, 2024. The questionnaire consisted of 16 Likert-scale questions related to both cognitive and affective aspects of empathy. Data were analyzed using frequencies, descriptive statistics, assessing group differences and reliability testing.

Of the 142 participants (55.68% response rate), most were aged 22-24 (41.6%, n = 59) and female (79.6%, n = 113). Undergraduates (first to fourth-year BHSc) made up 59.9% (n = 85), while 40.1% (n = 57) were postgraduates (first to second-year MHSc). The mean self-reported empathy score was 49.36 (SD = 7.27), with 77.5% (n = 110) showing high empathy. Undergraduates reported higher empathy (M = 50.28) than postgraduates (mean = 47.98) with a statistical difference of p = .064. Affective empathy items showed higher scores than cognitive empathy items. The TEQ demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.841).

This study shows a high self-reported empathy among chiropractic students at the university that declines in postgraduate years, affective empathy scores were higher than cognitive empathy scores, similar to trends in other health care students locally and abroad. Integrating empathy training, especially in later years, could help maintain empathy levels. Future research should track empathy development longitudinally and explore its impact on patient treatment adherence.