Association between dispositional empathy and self-other distinction in Irish and Belgian medical students: a cross-sectional analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Physicians' cognitive empathy is associated with improved diagnosis and better patient outcomes. The relationship between self-reported and performance-based measures of cognitive empathic processes is unclear.

Design

Cross-sectional analysis of the association between medical students' empathy scale scores and their empathic performance in a visuospatial perspective-taking (VPT) task.

Participants

Undergraduate medical students across two European medical schools (n=194).

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Two self-report empathy and one performance-based perspective-taking outcome: Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE); Empathy Quotient (EQ); Samson's level-1 VPT task.

Results

Higher scores on the 'standing in patient's shoes' subsc

SUBMITTER: Bukowski H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8442071 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature