Mental suffering and empathy in Brazilian medical students during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: Graduation in Medicine is a key moment for the formation of doctors’ personal and professional profiles. The COVID-19 pandemic had a deep impact on health and medical education. Objective: To study the social vulnerability, lifestyle, mental suffering, and empathy elements in Brazilian medical students during the pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out between October 2021 and March 2022, with 238 medical students. The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSE), the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and profile questions were applied. Results: Predominance of female (52.9%), white (74.4%) and young (mean age 23.3 years) respondents, that did not consider themselves belonging (51.2%) to vulnerable population groups (black people, native people, rural inhabitants, inhabitants of favelas, immigrants/refugees, people with disabilities or LGBTQIA+). 42.4% had psychiatric diagnoses, mostly anxiety (66.3% of the diagnoses) and depression (61.3%). Average score in DASS-21 was 21.98, with higher scores in women (p = 0.047) and LGBTQIA+ (p <0.001). Most students presented stress (70.6%), depression (53.4%), and anxiety (52.5%) above normal levels, with greater severity for stress symptoms among vulnerable population groups (p = 0.036). Overall average score in JSE was 105.95, with higher scores in women (p = 0.007) and vulnerable populations (p=0.04). There were no statistically significant correlations of the empathy scores with the other variables. Conclusion: The participating medical students showed several social vulnerability elements, relevant mental suffering and illness, and empathy at fair to good levels. Empathy, in this study, was associated only with gender and belonging to vulnerable populations.