Measuring Empathy among Dental Students and Interns: A Cross-Sectional Study from Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Table 1

Association between various sociodemographic factors and empathy among participants.

Variables	N (%), N = 362	Mean empathy score	SD	95% confidence interval		value
				Lower	Upper
Gender
Male	161 (44.5)	92.72	12.35	90.82	94.67	<0.001
Female	201 (55.5)	99.98	14.01	97.93	101.76
Class year
3rd year	87 (24)	94.73	14.71	91.6	97.87	0.008
4th year	84 (23.2)	93.24	13.54	90.3	96.18
5th year	78 (21.5)	99.79	13.98	96.64	102.95
6th year	86 (23.8)	98.91	12.06	96.32	101.49
Interns	27 (7.5)	98.55	13.16	93.35	103.76
Grade point average
High (4-4.9)	215 (59.4)	98.06	13.69	96.12	99.85	0.029
Low (3-3.9)	147 (40.6)	94.84	13.68	92.64	97.11
Mother’s education
No formal education	24 (6.6)	92.17	13.47	86.48	97.85	0.198
School education	138 (38.1)	97.64	14.14	95.26	100.02
College/university education	200 (55.2)	96.69	13.48	94.81	98.57
Father’s education
No formal education	10 (2.8)	89.9	10.79	82.18	97.62	0.271
School education	115 (31.8)	97.22	14.1	94.61	99.82
College/university education	237 (65.5)	96.82	13.67	95.07	98.57
Monthly family income
Low income	14 (3.9)	90.93	10.69	84.75	97.1	0.296
Middle income	138 (38.1)	97.62	13.69	95.32	99.93
High income	128 (35.4)	97.16	14.03	94.71	99.62
I do not know	82 (22.7)	95.65	13.82	92.61	98.68
Empathy taught in the course
Yes	270 (74.6)	97.15	14.09	95.51	98.84	0.351
No	92 (25.4)	95.6	12.73	93.11	98.11