Investigating the psychometric properties of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy in a sample of Malaysian medical students

Abstract

Objective

The purpose of this present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy – student version (JSPE-S).

Subjects and methods

This study recruited 193 Malaysian medical students enrolled in year one and year two studies. A principal-component analysis with Varimax rotation was conducted. Procrustes rotation was used to confirm the item to model fit, which allows for a comparison of actual structure against an ideal hypothesized structure. Items were systematically removed based on low communalities of < 0.3 and poor loading of items onto components.

Results

A two-component solution was found, comprised of “perspective taking” and “compassionate care”. Following item removal, eleven items remained. A Procrustes analysis revealed that this eleven-item measure demonstrated an excellent model fit. A possible third component was identified, though is not recommended for use, due to construct underrepresentation.

Conclusion

This study found the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy fitted best to a two-component model using eleven items. Item, component, and overall congruence were very high, and scale reliabilities were adequate. The results of this study suggest that the eleven-item, two-component solution demonstrates excellent psychometric properties and structural validity in a Malaysian medical student population. Future research could consider using the short eleven-item measure in both student and health care profession samples to investigate the role of empathy in health care.

Keywords:

• empathy
• medical students
• psychometrics

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the students who completed the surveys.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to study conception, collated and analyzed data, and helped write the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.