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Table 1 Profiles of high and low-empathy GPs: personal and professional characteristics

From: Profiles of GPs with high and low self-reported physician empathy—personal, professional, and antibiotic prescribing characteristics

 

High-empathy GPs †

10th decile (n = 39)

Low-empathy GPs ‡

1st decile (N = 46)

Group difference measures

Characteristics

Mean

[95% CI]

CV

[95% CI]

Mean

[95% CI]

CV

[95% CI]

VI

[95% CI]

Mean DIFF

[95% CI]

P-value

Total Empathy Score (20 items)

135.49

[134.41; 136.56]

0.015

[0.011;0.018]

97.28

[95.04; 99.53]

0.052

[0.037;0.0647]

1.39

[1.36;1.43]

38.21

[35.67;40.73]

 < 0.0001***

PT subscore (10 items)A

67.77

[67.08;68.46]

0.027

[0.021;0.033]

47.3

[45.74;48.87]

0.092

[0.071;0.114]

1.43

[1.38;1.48]

20.47

[18.72;22.21]

 < 0.0001***

CP subscore (8 items)A

53.92

[53.31; 54.54]

0.027

[0.018;0.036]

39.28

[37.99;40.58]

0.096

[0.074;0.117]

1.37

[1.33;1.42]

14.64

[14.64;16.05]

 < 0.0001***

WPS subscore (2 items)A

13.79

[13.61; 13.98]

0.034

[0.017;0.051]

10.70

[10.04;11.36]

0.193

[0.151;0.235]

1.29

[1.21;1.367]

3.09

[2.41; 3.79]

 < 0.0001***

Demographics

 Physician Age

56.33

[54.16; 58.51]

0.128

[0.104; 0.153]

55.91

[53.45;58.37]

0.138

[0.115;0.161]

1.01

[0.95;1.07]

0.42

[-2.91; 3.75]

0.7775

 Male

38.50%

[23.09;53.83]

  

67.40%

[52.6;8.22]

  

0.57

[0.30;0.84]

-0.29

[-0.50; -0.08]

0.0076**

 Female

61.50%

[46.17;76.91]

  

32.60%

[17.80;47.40]

  

1.89

[0.69;3.08]

0.29

[0.08;0.50]

0.0076**

Practice Type

 Urban

46.20%

[28.28;63.03]

  

54.30%

[37.00;71.71]

  

0.85

[0.43;1,27]

-0.08

[-0.33;0.16]

0.4515

 Rural

17.90%

[6.37;29.53]

  

15.22%

[3.72;26.72]

  

1.18

[-0.74;3.10]

0.03

[-0.14;0.19]

0.7351

 Mixed Urban/Rural

35.90%

[20.75;51.05]

  

30.40%

[15.06;45.81]

  

1.18

[-0.34;2.39]

0.05

[-0.16;0.27]

0.5934

 Partnership

69.20%

[53.62;84.84]

  

63.04%

[47.21;78.88]

  

1.1

[0.66;1.54]

0.06

[-0.14;0.26]

0.5488

 Non-Partnership

30.77%

[15.16;46.48]

  

37.00%

[21.12;52.79]

  

0.83

[0.24;1.43]

-0.06

[-0.29;0.16]

0.5488

Experience

 Years since GP specialization

20.82

[18.48;23.16]

0.365

[0.289; 0.440]

20.41

[17.81;23.01]

0.407

[0.326;0.487]

1.02

[0.85;1.19]

0.41

[-3.17;3.98]

0.8702

 Years in present practice

17.62

[15.04;20.19]

0.488

[0.388; 0.587]

18.87

[13.47;24.27]

0.963

[0.414;1.511]

0.93

[0.64;1.23]

-1.25

[-7.52;5.02]

0.6556

Job Satisfaction

 Satisfied

87.20%

[77.05;97.30]

  

71.74%

[58.50;84.98]

  

1.22

[0.95;1.48]

0.15

[-0.01; 0.32]

0.0825

 Neutral

10.26%

[1.30;19.22]

  

15.22%

[3.51;26.93]

  

0.68

[-0.45;1.80]

-0.05

[0.20; 0.10]

0.4971

 Unsatisfied

2.56%

[-4.06; 9.18]

  

13.04%

[3.51;22.58]

  

0.2

[-1.08;1.47]

-0.10

[-0.23; 0.015]

0.0799

Contribution of medical Practice factors to Job SatisfactionC

 Physician–patient relationship

6.69

[6.51;6.87]

0.092

[0.049;0.134]

5.59

[5.33;5.84]

0.139

[0.1065;0.172]

1.2

[1.13;1.26]

1.11

[0.78; 1.42]

 < 0.0001***

 Intellectual stimulation

6.21

[5.93;6.48]

0.134

[0.105;0.164]

5.04

[4.76;5.33]

0.191

[0.131;0.252]

1.23

[1.15;1.31]

1.16

[0.76; 1.56]

 < 0.0001***

 Interaction with colleagues

6.03

[5.63;6.42]

0.200

[0.137;0.262]

4.70

[4.25;5.14]

0.307

[0.227;0.388]

1.28

[1.14;1.43]

1.33

[0.74; 1.92]

 < 0.0001***

 Economic profit

5.13

[4.74;5.52]

0.242

[0.173;0.310]

4.76

[4.42;5.10]

0.235

[0.183;0.287]

1.08

[0.97;1.19]

0.37

[-0.16; 0.89]

0.1377

 Prestige

3.74

[3.27;4.22]

0.410

[0.333;0.486]

3.78

[3.42;4.14]

0.320

[0.228;0.412]

0.99

[0.83;1.15]

-0.04

[-0.65; 0.57]

0.5055

  1. †: High-empathy GPs (10th decile). ‡ :  Low-empathy GPs (1st decile). PT: Perspective Taking, CP: Compassionate Care, WPS: Walking in the patient’s shoes. A: The fraction of total score that each subscore contributes is the items shown in parenthesis out of the 20 items in the total empathy score, CV: Coefficient of variation = (SD/Mean); VI: Variation index = %ile>90 group† mean (n =39)/ %ile<10 group ‡ mean (n = 46). B: The differences between the groups have been tested: For dichotomous variables, the equality of proportions was tested; For continuous or ordinal variables, the Mann-Whitney (ranksum) test was applied. For both types of test the p-values are reported *: p <0.05, **: p <0.01 ***: p <0.001. Furthermore, a 95% CI for the mean group differences have been estimated. In table 1, all reported confidence intervals are based on bootstrapping (1000 reps) based on the observations in the high and low empathy groups respectively. CValues of scores on 7 point-scale
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BMC Primary Care

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