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. 2025 Dec 10;26(1):73.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-08224-1.

Empathy levels among health sciences professors in Latin America: distribution, classification and gender differences

Víctor P Díaz-Narváez  1 , José Gamarra-Moncayo  2 , Rubén Eduardo Vázquez-García  3 , Jaime Hernández de León  3 , Luz Marina Alonso Palacio  4 , Margarett Cuello-Pérez  5 , Natalia Fortich-Mesa  5 , Luis Montero Saldaña  6 , Laura Sánchez Jiménez  7 , Nuvia Estrada-Méndez  8 , Carolina More Toro  9 , Irma Andrade Valles  10 , Yolima Pertuz Meza  11 , Jorge Bilbao Ramírez  12 , María G Silva-Vetri  13 , Eugenia González-Díaz  14 , Adán Alexis Acosta Martínez  15 , Lesbia Tirado Amador  16 , Sendy Meléndez Chávez  17 , Juan David Salcedos Salgado  18 , María Alicia Agudelo Giraldo  19 , Adalberto Llinas Delgado  20 , Jesús Alonso Cabrera  21 , Sara Huerta-González  22
Affiliations

Empathy levels among health sciences professors in Latin America: distribution, classification and gender differences

Víctor P Díaz-Narváez et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Teachers are considered potential empathetic mentors who can serve as positive role models in the development of empathy skills among students in health sciences disciplines, positively influencing their relationships with healthy or ill individuals. Objective: To estimate and classify the levels of empathy among health sciences professors in Latin America and compare their distribution by gender. Methods: This was a descriptive- analytical cross-sectional study design, involving 1,128 health sciences professors from six Latin American countries. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy – Health Professions version (JSE-HP) was administered. Descriptive statistics were applied, along with confirmatory factor analysis (using the WLSMV estimator) and analysis of variance by gender. Empathy levels were calculated based on established cut-off points.

Results: More that half of the professors showed empathy levels in the medium to very low range. Measurement invariance by gender was supported. Statistically significant but small differences were observed, with women scoring slightly higher in Perspective Taking dimension and overall empathy.

Conclusion: Health sciences faculty in Latin America showed predominantly moderate empathy levels with small gender differences. These findings emphasize the need to strengthen empathy support in academic settings.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-025-08224-1.

Keywords: Empathy; Health sciences education; Professors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This research was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Universidad Andrés Bello in Santiago, Chile, in July 2022 (Act No. 020, July 2022). All participating universities adhered to the resolution issued by the aforementioned Ethics Committee. This study was classified as low risk. The research was conducted following national and international ethical standards for human research (Declaration of Helsinki, 2024). All participants were informed about the aims of the study and agreed to participate freely and voluntarily through the reading and signing of the informed consent form. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Oblique three-factor model of empathy. Note: CC = Compassionate Care, PA = Perspective adoption, WIPS = Walking in the patient’s shoes, EMP = Empathy
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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