Associations between empathy and big five personality traits among Chinese undergraduate medical students

<div><p>Background</p><p>Empathy promotes positive physician-patient communication and is associated with improved patient satisfaction, treatment adherence and clinical outcomes. It has been suggested that personality traits should be taken into consideration in programs designed to enhance empathy in medical education due to the association found between personality and empathy among medical students. However, the associations between empathy and big five personality traits in medical education are still underrepresented in the existing literature and relevant studies have not been conducted among medical students in China, where tensions in the physician-patient relationship have been reported as outstanding problems in the context of China’s current medical reform. Thus, the main objective of this study was to examine the associations between empathy and big five personality traits among Chinese medical students.</p><p>Methods</p><p>A cross-sectional study was conducted in a medical university in Northeast China in June 2016. Self-reported questionnaires including the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Big Five Inventory (BFI) and demographic characteristics were distributed. A total of 530 clinical medical students became our final subjects. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to explore the effects of big five personality traits on empathy.</p><p>Results</p><p>Results of this study showed that big five personality traits accounted for 19.4%, 18.1%, 30.2% of the variance in three dimensions of empathy, namely, perspective taking, empathic concern and personal distress, respectively. Specifically, agreeableness had a strong positive association with empathic concern (β = 0.477, P<0.01), and a moderate association with perspective taking (β = 0.349, P<0.01). Neuroticism was strongly associated with personal distress (β = 0.526, P<0.01) and modestly associated with perspective taking (β = 0.149, P<0.01). Openness to experience had modest associations with perspective taking (β = 0.150, P<0.01) and personal distress (β = -0.160, P<0.01). Conscientiousness had a modest association with perspective taking (β = 0.173, P<0.01).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>This study revealed that big five personality traits were important predictors of self-reported measures of both cognitive and affective empathy among Chinese medical students. Therefore, individualized intervention strategies based on personality traits could be integrated into programs to enhance empathy in medical education.</p></div

Means, standard deviation (SD) and correlations of continuous variables.

<p>Means, standard deviation (SD) and correlations of continuous variables.</p

Demographic characteristics of participants.

<p>Demographic characteristics of participants.</p

Demographic characteristics and differences in anxiety symptoms (N = 2925).

<p>SAS: the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale</p><p>Demographic characteristics and differences in anxiety symptoms (N = 2925).</p

Psychological Disorders and Psychosocial Resources of Patients with Newly Diagnosed Bladder and Kidney Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study

<div><p>Purpose</p><p>Psychological disorders have been proven to be associated with poor physiological, psychological and immune outcomes in cancer patients. However, despite of many challenges of the changed self-image/body image and the altered sexual/urinary function, relatively little is known about psychological disorders of patients with newly diagnosed bladder and kidney cancer. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the associated psychosocial factors among bladder/kidney cancer patients.</p><p>Methods</p><p>A cross-sectional study was conducted of consecutive inpatients with bladder/kidney cancer in the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University in Liaoning Province, northeast China. A total of 489 early-stage cancer patients eligible for this study completed questionnaires on demographic and clinical variables, depression, anxiety, PTSD, perceived social support and positive psychological variables (hope, optimism and resilience) anonymously during October 2013 and August 2014. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the relationships between psychosocial resources and psychological disorders, while controlling for possible covariates.</p><p>Results</p><p>The prevalence of depression, anxiety and PTSD was 77.5%, 69.3% and 25.2%, respectively, while 24.9% of patients had psychological co-morbidity. Psychosocial resources together explained more than one-third of the variance on psychological disorders. Under standardized estimate (β) sequence, patient’s perception of social support from family was significantly associated with depression, anxiety and PTSD (<i>p</i> < 0.01). Optimism and resilience showed integrated and independent effects on psychological disorders, and hope represented the significant association with PTSD only (<i>p</i> < 0.01).</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>The high prevalence of psychological disorders in newly diagnosed patients with early-stage bladder/kidney cancer should receive more attention in Chinese medical settings. Additionally, in consideration of the different protective effects of psychosocial resources, the present study demonstrated that one complete psychological intervention integrating the associated psychosocial factors are necessary to ameliorate psychological disorders so as to provide patients with a more holistic cancer care.</p></div

CES-D, SAS, PCL-C scores in demographic and clinical variables.

<p>CES-D, SAS, PCL-C scores in demographic and clinical variables.</p

Means, standard deviation (SD) and correlations of continuous variables.

<p>**P < 0.01.</p><p>Means, standard deviation (SD) and correlations of continuous variables.</p

The results of hierarchical linear regression analyses.

<p>**P < 0.01.</p><p>Father education 1 = middle school/primary school; Father education 2 = college and above/primary school; Mother education 1 = middle school/primary school; Mother education 2 = college and above/primary school.</p><p>The effect of resilience on anxiety symptoms was significantly negative (β = −0.266, P < 0.01), explaining an additional 4.7% of the variance.</p><p>The results of hierarchical linear regression analyses.</p

Patient Characteristics (N = 489).

<p>Patient Characteristics (N = 489).</p

Means, standard deviation, range and zero-order correlations (Pearson’s r) among study variables.

<p>Means, standard deviation, range and zero-order correlations (Pearson’s r) among study variables.</p