An Outpatient Cross-Sectional Study of Physicians’ Empathy From the Patients’ Perspective: A Comparison of the Arabic Version of the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure Across Four Disciplines

Purpose Empathy plays a crucial role in the patient-physician relationship and is often regarded as a key determinant of effective medical care. This study aimed to validate the Arabic version of the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure and compare patients' perceptions of physician empathy across four medical specialties. Materials and methods A cross-sectional, survey-based design was employed. Participants were randomly selected from family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, and orthopedics clinics (36 patients per specialty). The investigators individually assisted each patient in completing the Arabic version of the CARE measure, which measured the level of empathy perceived during their medical consultation. After translation, a validation study for the Arabic version was conducted. The mean CARE scores across the four specialties were analyzed using nonparametric tests, namely the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05. Results A significant association was found between physicians' specialties and patients' perceptions of empathy levels (p = 0.047). Family medicine physicians had the highest mean empathy scores, while orthopedic surgeons had the lowest. Patients' marital status was significantly associated with their perception of their doctors' empathy (p = 0.032), with married patients reporting the highest level of empathy and single patients the lowest. The (CARE) measure demonstrated high reliability, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.926. Conclusions Patients' perceptions of doctors' empathy were significantly higher among family medicine physicians than among orthopedic surgeons. It shows that the Arabic version of the CARE measure has strong psychometric properties and is valid for use in similar outpatient settings. The results indicate the need to enhance the training curricula of medical programs in general and surgical programs in particular.