Introduction:

Emotional intelligence (EI) and empathy are two essential skills for person-centered Medicine.

Objectives:

To evaluate the association between EI and empathy and to assess whether sociodemographic factors and year at the medical school influence the level of EI and empathy.

Methods:

Cross-sectional study carried out in medical students from a private educational institution in the city of São João del-Rei, Minas Gerais, Brazil. EI levels were assessed using the Schutte Self-report Emotional Intelligence Test and empathy levels were assessed using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (student version). All volunteers signed the Informed Consent Form before inclusion in the study. The statistical analysis used mean values, standard deviation, frequency distribution, Student’s t test, Pearson’s correlation, and linear regression. A significance level of 0.05 was considered.

Results:

From August 5 to 30, 2019, 193 volunteers, corresponding to 85.8% of the total population, agreed to participate in the study. The total EI (129.8 ± 13.3) and empathy (121.2 ± 11.6) observed scores were high. EI scores were influenced only by age (padjusted = 0.018). Students attending more advanced semesters had higher total empathy scores (padjusted = 0.013). Students whose parents did not have a higher education degree also had a higher total empathy score (padjusted = 0.031). A moderate positive correlation was observed between the total EI and empathy scores ( ρ =0.304, p<0.001) and between the total empathy score and the EI domain Managing Others’ Emotions ( ρ =0.300, p<0.001). A weak positive correlation was also observed between the total EI score and most of the empathy domains.

Conclusion:

A positive correlation between emotional intelligence and empathy was observed. The age influenced EI and the year of medical school and parental schooling influenced empathy.

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