The relationship between medical students’ empathy and burnout levels by gender and study years

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the multifaceted factors affecting empathy in medical students. Methods1293 medical students from 15 South Korean medical schools participated in an online survey. Affective empathy was measured with the ‘empathy concern’ and ‘personal distress’ dimensions from the Interpersonal Reactivity Index for Medical Students (IRI-MS). Cognitive empathy was assessed with IRI-MS’ ‘perspective taking’ and Jefferson Scales for Physician Empathy for Student (JSPE-S). Maslach Burnout Inventory for Medical Students (MBI-MS) assessed the burnout levels of the participants. ResultsA significant gender difference in affective and cognitive empathy was found using JSPE-S. Different patterns were seen in the empathy dimensions between the study years and genders. Burnout scores showed no gender differences, while exhaustion and cynicism increased, and academic efficacy decreased with seniority. Academic efficacy was a consistently influential factor for both affective and cognitive empathy in both genders, all study years and the three domains of burnout. ConclusionAcademic efficacy was a significant factor influencing both affective and cognitive empathy. Practical implicationsThe comprehensive nature of empathy in medical students may be better investigated by applying multi-dimensional empathy measurement tools and by analyzing multiple factors such as gender, study year and burnout.