Empathy in undergraduate medical students: A multivariate cross-sectional study in China

Context: Investigate the impact of various factors on medical students’ empathy scores, and provide constructive ideological and political education strategies to enhance their empathy abilities. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 320 undergraduate medical students from Wuhan University, spanning three academic years. A web-based questionnaire assessed empathy, including the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Student Version (JSE-S). Various factors, including grade, gender, medical major choice, urbanization level, clinical course participation, internship experience, number of romantic relationships, and experience of breakups, were examined for their influence on empathy scores. Results: There is a significant correlation between medical major selection, gender, and empathy scores. Furthermore, in binary logistic regression analysis, the influence of medical major selection on empathy scores surpasses that of the inherent variable, gender. Conclusions: This study indicates that medical major choice and gender are predictive factors of empathy ability among medical students. More large-sample studies or qualitative research should be conducted to explore the influencing factors of empathy ability in medical students, with the aim of further enhancing their empathy levels. Additionally, we found that students who initially did not choose a medical major and male students are groups with relatively lower empathy levels. Medical schools should focus on empathy education for these groups in future training programs, aiming to increase their interest in medicine and improve their empathy levels.