Table 1.
Data Extracted from Studies Pertaining to Study Characteristics, Participant Details, and Main Findings.
| Study Characteristics | Participant Characteristics |
Study Results |
|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Authors, Year, Country | Setting/Specialty | Measures | N= | Profession |
Gender | Age (years) | Relationship to Empathy |
||||||
| Empathy | Nurses | Medics | Other | EE | DP | PA | Other | ||||||
| A | Baxter (1992); America | Acute care hospital setting | BLRI | 124 | √ | M = 5 | Mean = 38.9 | r = −0.14 e | r = −0.33a | r = +0.21d | |||
| F = 119 | (SD 8.9) | ||||||||||||
| B | Bradley (1995); America | Adolescent medical unit, Emergency department, Adolescent psychiatric unit | EES | 79 | √ | √ | M = 12 | Mean = 35.7 | r = −0.07d | r = −0.15d | r = −0.01d | ||
| F = 67 | (SD 5.9) | ||||||||||||
| C | Kellner (2001); America | Emergency Services | EES | 124 | √ | √ | M = 55 | Mean = 38 | r = +0.40a | r = +0.24c | r = −0.25c | ||
| F = 69 | (SD 11.5) | ||||||||||||
| D | Lamothe et al. (2014); France | Primary Care-GP practices | Emotional Empathy (Empathic Concern) – TEQ | 294 | √ | M = 151 | Mean (M) = 53.5 | Cognitive & Emotional Empathy & Burnout Subscales EE: | Cognitive & Emotional Empathy & Burnout Subscale DP: | Cognitive & Emotional Empathy & Burnout Subscales PA: | r = −0.24c Total Burnout Score & Reduced Cognitive Empathy | ||
| Cognitive Empathy – JSPE (Perspective Taking Subscale) | F = 143 | (SD 8.6) | r = not reported | r = −0.18 to −0.32c | r = +0.18 to +0.40 | r = −0.17c Total Burnout Score & Reduced Emotional Empathy | |||||||
| Mean (F) = 48.3 | Linear Regression (cognitive and emotional empathy interaction as predictors): Higher emotional empathy (β = −0.17d) & cognitive empathy (β = −0.21a) predicted lower burnout. | ||||||||||||
| (SD 9.4) | |||||||||||||
| E | Lee et al. (2003); Korea | Tertiary hospitals | Emotional Empathy – EES | 178 | √ | F = 178 | Mean = 30 | Correlations | Correlations | Correlations | |||
| Cognitive Empathy – BLES | Cognitive Empathy & Burnout Subscales EE: | Cognitive Empathy & Burnout Subscales DP: | Cognitive Empathy & Burnout Subscales PA: | ||||||||||
| r = −0.25a | r = −0.36a | r = +0.47a | |||||||||||
| Emotional Empathy & Burnout Subscales: | Emotional Empathy & Burnout Subscales: | Emotional Empathy & Burnout Subscales: | |||||||||||
| r = −0.03 | r = +0.03 | r = −0.07 | |||||||||||
| Hierarchical Regressions: | Hierarchical Regressions: | Hierarchical Regressions: | |||||||||||
| Burnout subcategories and Cognitive empathy: | Burnout subcategories and Cognitive empathy: | Burnout subcategories and Cognitive empathy: | |||||||||||
| β = −0.15e | β= −0.24b | β = +0.27a | |||||||||||
| Burnout subcategories and Emotional empathy: | Burnout subcategories and Emotional empathy: | Burnout subcategories and Emotional empathy: | |||||||||||
| β = −0.02e | β = −0.01e | β = 0.00e | |||||||||||
| F | Tei et al. (2014); Japan | Hospital | IRI | 25 | √ | M = 5 | Mean = 26 | Correlations of Burnout Subscale: | |||||
| F = 20 | (SD 3.14) | Depersonalization and Empathy Subscales; | |||||||||||
| r = +0.39 Perspective Taking | |||||||||||||
| r = −0.02 Empathic Concern | |||||||||||||
| r = −0.10 Personal Distress | |||||||||||||
| Correlations of Burnout Subscale: | |||||||||||||
| Emotional Exhaustion & Empathy Subscales | |||||||||||||
| r = +0.51c Perspective Taking | |||||||||||||
| r = +0.14 Empathic Concern | |||||||||||||
| r = +0.24 Personal Distress | |||||||||||||
| G | Torres et al. (2015); Spain | Primary Care-GP practices | JSPE | 108 | √ | M = 39 | not given | high empathy and low burnout, no inferential statistics reported | |||||
| F = 69 | |||||||||||||
| H | Walocha et al. (2013); Poland | Hospitals, Outpatient clinics, university departments | EES, TAT | 71 | √ | √ | M = 46 | Range = 25–68 | Empathy and EE subscale of Burnout | Empathy and DP subscale of Burnout | Empathy and PA subscale of Burnout | Spearman's Correlation Co-Efficient: | |
| F = 25 | G1 | G1 | G1 | Whole Sample; | |||||||||
| r = −0.01 | r = −0.13 | r = +0.18 | r = −0.23d Low Personal Accomplishment & Empathy | ||||||||||
| G2 | G2 | G2 | |||||||||||
| r = −0.13 | r = −0.37e | r = +0.11 | |||||||||||
| G3 | G3 | G3 | |||||||||||
| r = −0.34e | r = −0.39d | r = +0.02 | |||||||||||
| I | Ferri et al. (2015); Italy | General Hospitals, surgical & medical wards | BEES | 162 | M = 32 | Mean = 39 | r = −0.245 | Not statistically significant (no figures recorded) | r = 0.266 | ||||
| F = 130 | SD = 9 | ||||||||||||
| J | Yuguero et al. (2017); Spain | Primary Care, urban & rural GP practices. | JSPE | 267 | √ | √ | M = 58 | Median = 48 | r = −0.1 | r = -0.2a | r = 0. 3a | Overall MBI/JSPE: r = −0.2a | |
| F = 209 | Range 31–65 | ||||||||||||
Note: p < 0.001a, p < 0.005b, p < 0.01c, p < 0.05d, p > 0.05e
Measures: Maslach Burnout Inventory ([MBI], Maslach & Jackson, 1981); Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory ([BLRI], Barrett-Lennard, 1962); Mehrabian Emotional Empathic Tendency Scale ([EES], Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972), Toronto Empathy Questionnaire ([TEQ], Spreng, McKinnon, Mar, & Levine, 2009), Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy ([JSPE], Hojat et al., 2001); Barrett-Lennard Empathy Scale ([BLES], Barrett-Lennard, 1962); Interpersonal Reactivity Index ([IRI], Davis, 1983); Thematic Apperception Test ([TAT], Murray, 1951); Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale ([BEES], Meneghini et al., 2006).
Burnout and Empathy Results: (G1) Surgical, (G2) Non-surgical, (G3) Primary Care.