Abstract
Background Empathy is fundamentally a desirable quality among doctors and can be developed during medical education. It is a crucial contributing factor of patientndashphysician communication and relationship.Methodology A cross sectional study was undertaken during August - October 2022 to assess the empathy and its associated factors among medical students of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute Bangalore. Using simple random sampling method 180 medical students were selected from first year to fourth year. Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Student version JSE-S was used to evaluate empathy.Results A total of 180 undergraduate medical students participated in this study which included 75 male and 105 female students. The estimated overall empathy score of the participants was 95.52plusmn6.32. Highest empathy was observed among first years and a significant fall in empathy by fourth year was noted among students. Female students showed more empathy levels than male students.Conclusion Empathy levels among medical students in our study were low compared to other studies conducted in India. Empathy declined with increasing years of education. Gender and future career choice were important determinants of empathy score. The medical curriculum should give more focus to the promotion of empathy and other humanistic values among undergraduate medical students. This would enable them to serve humanity better in the future.nbsp
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