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

Table 2

Association between patient care factors and empathy among participants.

Variables	N (%)	Mean empathy score	SD	95% confidence interval		value
				Lower	Upper
(1) Do you believe that empathy is important for effective communication with patients?	Yes: 348 (96.1)	97.24	13.69	95.77	98.7	<0.001
	No: 14 (3.9)	83.64	7.33	79.77	87.89
(2) Do you believe that empathy can help lower the rates of patient litigation?	Yes: 321 (88.7)	96.98	14.03	95.44	98.57	0.387
	No: 41 (11.3)	95	11.39	91.54	98.64
(3) Do you believe that having empathy can improve healthcare provider and patient relationship?	Yes: 346 (95.6)	97.22	13.69	95.79	98.82	0.003
	No: 16 (4.4)	86.75	11.48	81.6	93.1
(4) Do you believe that empathy can lead to positive treatment outcomes?	Yes: 337 (93.1)	97.65	13.69	96.13	99.1	<0.001
	No: 25 (6.9)	84.6	7.54	81.83	87.68
(5) Do you believe that empathy can improve the quality of patient dental care?	Yes: 332 (91.7)	97.21	13.95	95.63	98.73	0.034
	No: 30 (8.3)	91.67	10.36	88.18	95.36
(6) Do you believe that empathy is important for achieving patient satisfaction?	Yes: 334 (92.3)	97.24	13.9	95.72	98.74	0.02
	No: 28 (7.7)	90.96	10.7	87.03	94.92