Establishing the construct validity and Internal consistency for Urdu version of Jefferson Scale of Empathy-S (JSE-S)

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVESEmpathy is an important factor in patient-physician relationship that results in better patient compliance, satisfaction, and clinical outcomes. Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) assesses empathy in health professionals (HP-version) and related students (S-version). It has been translated in over 50 languages and validation studies have been performed on these translated S-version of the scale. We decided to examine empathy of Pakistani student and to study factor structure and psychometric properties of the Urdu translation of the JSE-S. METHODS405 out of 521 students of Muhammad Medical College participated in the study. It was a cross-sectional study and the students filled in Urdu version of JSE-S questionnaire consisting of 20 items. Each item was scored on 7-points Likert scale. Total scores ranged from 20 to 140. Higher values indicated more positive attitudes toward empathic patient care, and therefore a higher degree of empathy RESULTSThe mean JSE-S empathy score of the medical students was 107.22 (+/- 12.844). Cronbachs alpha coefficient was 0.684 for the overall measure. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test yielded an index of 0.764, suggesting a support for factor analysis. Bartletts test of sphericity was 985.518 and was highly significant (P = 000). A principal component analysis showed a three-factor solution that also provided support for the construct validity of the Urdu version of JSE S-version. CONCLUSIONThe Urdu version of JSE is a valid and reliable measure to tap empathy in a Pakistani medical student.