The growing interest in examining empathy in the field of medicine results from the fact that being empathetic not only increases the patient’s satisfaction in the physician-patient relationship but also facilitates the diagnostic process and improves the clinical outcome. udIn 1977 empathy in medical students was measured for the first time in Australia; numerous investigations on empathy at medical schools all over the world followed. Most of them revealed a higher empathy score in females as well as a connection between the students’ choice of future medical field and their empathy scores. Furthermore, a decline in empathy scores during medical school proceedings was repeatedly found out. So far, there have been no comparative studies on empathy which have taken into account a possible influence of cultural factors on medical students` empathy. udThe main objectives of this study were to investigate and compare empathy in first-year undergraduate medical students of two different cultural areas focusing on the detection of new influencing factors such as cultural features and socio-demographic characteristics. Moreover, further research on known influencing factors such as gender and the future medical field was done.udIn the academic year 2010/11, a total of 257 students from Jimma University, Ethiopia and Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Germany completed the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) as an instrument for the quantification of emotional empathy, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RME-R test) for measuring cognitive empathy as well as a questionnaire on socio-demographic and cultural characteristics. Furthermore, interviews on the definition of empathy and possible influencing factors were conducted. udThe main findings of the study include the identification of religiosity, the choice of the future medical field and the gender as influencing factors on the BEES score. Participants who declared to be actively practicing their religion have higher BEES scores than participants who did not. Participants who prefer a medical field with continuity of patient care have higher BEES scores than those preferring a field with less interpersonal contact. Compared to males, females have significantly higher scores in the BEES as well as in the RME-R test. Moreover, a positive correlation between the BEES and the performance in the RME-R test indicating a connection between emotional and cognitive empathy was detected.
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