Assessing self-reported empathy among chiropractic students at a South African university.
Empathy is an essential interpersonal skill underpinning patient-centered and biopsychosocial approaches that are globally advocated for in musculoskeletal health care for better patient outcomes. This study aimed to gauge chiropractic students' self-reported empathy levels at a South African univer...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Chiropractic Education (Allen Press Publishing Services Inc.) Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 1 - 10 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
KnowledgeWorks Global, Ltd
2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=191799698&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 191799698 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 10425055 HCUD jtl: Journal of Chiropractic Education (Allen Press Publishing Services Inc.) issn: 10425055 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2026 vid: 40 iid: 1 pid: 81084 pub: KnowledgeWorks Global, Ltd place: Richmond, Virginia artinfo: ui: 191799698 191799698 191799698 10.7899/JCE-25-6 191799698 ppf: 1 ppct: 9 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Assessing self-reported empathy among chiropractic students at a South African university. aug: au: Ismail, Fatima Simoes, Mikaela affil: Department of Chiropractic, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa sug: subj: Students, Chiropractic Psychosocial Factors Empathy Evaluation Self Report Colleges and Universities South Africa Human Funding Source Female Male Adult Descriptive Statistics Summated Rating Scaling Comparative Studies Reliability Students, Undergraduate Cognition Item Analysis Internal Consistency Education, Chiropractic Education, Baccalaureate Education, Masters Patient Centered Care Models, Biopsychosocial Cross Sectional Studies Quantitative Studies Exploratory Research Data Analysis Software T-Tests Questionnaires Adult: 19-44 years Female Male ab: Empathy is an essential interpersonal skill underpinning patient-centered and biopsychosocial approaches that are globally advocated for in musculoskeletal health care for better patient outcomes. This study aimed to gauge chiropractic students' self-reported empathy levels at a South African university. The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) was distributed to Bachelor of Health Sciences (BHSc) and Master of Health Sciences (MHSc) chiropractic students at the University of Johannesburg between February 26, 2024 to March 6, 2024. The questionnaire consisted of 16 Likert-scale questions related to both cognitive and affective aspects of empathy. Data were analyzed using frequencies, descriptive statistics, assessing group differences and reliability testing. Of the 142 participants (55.68% response rate), most were aged 22–24 (41.6%, n = 59) and female (79.6%, n = 113). Undergraduates (first to fourth-year BHSc) made up 59.9% (n = 85), while 40.1% (n = 57) were postgraduates (first to second-year MHSc). The mean self-reported empathy score was 49.36 (SD = 7.27), with 77.5% (n = 110) showing high empathy. Undergraduates reported higher empathy (M = 50.28) than postgraduates (mean = 47.98) with a statistical difference of p =.064. Affective empathy items showed higher scores than cognitive empathy items. The TEQ demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.841). This study shows a high self-reported empathy among chiropractic students at the university that declines in postgraduate years, affective empathy scores were higher than cognitive empathy scores, similar to trends in other health care students locally and abroad. Integrating empathy training, especially in later years, could help maintain empathy levels. Future research should track empathy development longitudinally and explore its impact on patient treatment adherence. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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