ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Empathy refers to a personality character that has a great role in communication with others. Thus, proper evaluation and education of empathy in medical students is important for medical education. Because previous studies had suggested that physician's empathy may reduce with clinical trainings, in this study we decided to measure the empathy score among medical students. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on medical students in the first to seventh years of their studies at Shiraz medical school (south of Iran) in 2010. We designed new Iranian version questionnaire of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy. Sample size was 260 students and the results were analyzed in SPSS, version 11.5 (statistical tests such as descriptive methods, t-test, and ANOVA) and p<005 was considered as the significant level. RESULTS: The empathy score decreased with increase in the students' age (p=0.001) and educational level (p=0.030). The overall rate of empathy score in basic science level (65.5±0.84) was more than that in the clinical level (55.5±1.78). The lowest empathy score was seen in the seventh year students (55.51) and the highest was in the first year students (65.50). Female students had higher mean empathy score (65.53) while it was 59.02 in the male students. CONCLUSION: In general, medical students in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences had low empathy level and this may be a cause for concern; as such we suggest a possible inclusion of courses on empathy in the curriculum.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of addiction to the Internet, computer games, DVD, and video and its relationship to anxiety and depression in a sample of Iranian high school students. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study 1020 high school students (males and females) were selected randomly from different areas of Shiraz city in southern Iran. They were interviewed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4(th) ed (DSM-IV) criteria. RESULTS: About 50% of the students were females, 277 students (27.2%) were studying in the first year of high school, 242 (23.7%) were in the second year, and others in the third year. The prevalence of anxiety was significantly higher in females than in males (p < 0.05). The prevalence of anxiety was lower among students of the third year (p < 0.05). The prevalence of depression was significantly higher in students with lower economic status defined as family monthly income. Internet dependence was seen only in 5 students. The prevalence of anxiety was significantly higher in the students who used internet for chatting, amusement, and reading news (p < 0.05). The prevalence of anxiety was significantly higher in students who were DVD or video CD dependents (p < 0.05). The students who used especial drugs or had especial diseases had higher rates of depression and anxiety (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Internet addiction may cause depression and anxiety in high school students. It seems necessary to develop an Internet addiction prevention program for adolescents taking into account the psychological factors such as depression and Internet use habits.
