Relationship between medical and general gratitude among medical students: a cross-sectional study

To develop a medical gratitude scale for medical students, and to investigate the relationship between medical gratitude and general attitude. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Guangdong, China. We used a stratified cluster sampling strategy to select 500 eligible clinical medical students in Guangdong, China. A self-administered medical gratitude scale was developed to measure the medical-specific gratitude. Fornell-Larcker criterion was used to estimate the discrimination of these two scales. A hierarchical multiple regression was used to estimate the relationships. 482 valid questionnaires were finally collected. Factor analysis showed the acceptable reliability and validity of the medical gratitude scale (Cronbach's α = 0.930). The mean scores for medical and general gratitude scales were 3.33 ± 0.42 and 3.11 ± 0.66, respectively. Fornell-Larcker criterion confirmed the discrimination between general and medical gratitude. Hierarchical multiple regression estimated the positive relationship between medical and gratitude (β = 0.46, 95%CI 0.38, 0.54, p < 0.001). Medical gratitude was also positively associated with the frequency of gratitude education received from teachers (β = 0.10, 95% CI 0.02, 0.18, p = 0.018) and from schools (β = 0.16, 95% CI 0.08, 0.25, p < 0.001). While correlated with general gratitude, medical gratitude appears to be conceptually distinct in its focus on the professional context. Integrating gratitude education into the medical school curriculum is a viable strategy to foster professionalized future physicians.