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Gender and empathic decline in students of the faculty of dentistry, central university (Ecuador): A cross-sectional study gender and empathic decline: A cross-sectional study

Abstract:

Objective: To make a diagnosis of empathic behaviour as a whole and in each of its components in the students of Facultad de Odontologia de la Universidad Central de Quito, Ecuador. Materials and methods: This is an exploratory and cross sectional research. Jefferson Medical Empathy Scale was applied to the participants. It was submited to judges to verify the cultural and content validity and to adapt it to dentistry students. Cronbach’s alpha, intraclass correlation coefficient and Hotelling’s T2 were estimated, as well as the mean and standard deviation. A bifactorial (model III) analysis of variance (multivariate ANOVA) was applied. Total possible growth potential was estimated. Simple and SSPSS22.0 processed arithmetic box graphs were used. The level of significance was α ≤ 0.05 and β ≥ 0.90. Results: We found low levels of empathy in comparison with other faculties from Latin America and a high relative development of the levels of the compassionate component, with the remaining components with low, and in some cases negative growth values. The model of empathic decline is not fulfilled and, generally, there are no statistical differences between genders. Conclusions: The results presented here may create conditions to build a more specific intervention strategy.