Ageism and empathy among dental students in southern Brazil

Purpose: To investigate the association of ageism, empathy, and other possible explanatory factors among dental students insouthern Brazil.Methods: An online questionnaire and in-person visits were used for collecting sociodemographic data, dental trainingexperiences, and attitudes toward aging, and employing the validated Brazilian versions of the Ageism Scale for Dental Students(ASDS-Braz) and Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to validate the JSE and ASDS-Braz, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was then employed to explore the relationships between total ageism score, totalempathy score, and other factors.Results: CFA for ASDS-Braz and JSE and the SEM showed marginal root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) valuesand displayed expected loading directions. Among 626 predoctoral dental students (91.5% response rate), SEM revealed significantassociations between the university attended and total empathy score with total ageism score, and sex with total empathy score.Conclusion: Among southern Brazilian dental students, university attended and overall empathy levels are strongly linked to thetotal ageism score. At the same time, gender shows a significant correlation with the overall empathy score.