Translation and Validation of the Turkish Version of JSE-HPS (JSE-HPS)

The Reliability, Validity and Cross-Cultural Adaptation of the Turkish Version of Jefferson Scale of Empathy For Health Professional Students

Empathy, which can be briefly defined as understanding and feeling of one's thoughts upon experiences. It has been gaining importance in health care. A great majority of the literature has been focusing on the aspect of physician and health care provider yet recently establishing or measuring empathy has been performed with the undergraduate students. Since empathy and its related dimensions are important to integrate a better skill to provide in health care, measuring empathy gained attention. However, there might be lacking some tools which assess empathy directly such as the Empathic Tendency Scale and the Empathic Skill Scale in the Turkish language, yet these were discussed as cannot be quite modifiable to some specific sub-groups such as health sciences students. Thus, this study is aimed to study for the reliability, validity, and cross-cultural adaptation of the Turkish version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for undergraduate health care students.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Surveys and Questionnaires; Empathy
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Questionnaire

Detailed Description

The research has been aimed at studying translation, validation, a cross-cultural adaptation of the Turkish version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Health Professional Students (JSE-HPS).

Study Setting:

This research was planned as a descriptive study. The research is planning to be performed between May 2020 and October 2020. The students who are currently studying in the Faculty of Health Sciences will be asked to participate in this study. Since ethical board approval was taken in February 2020 and study was planned to start in March or April 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the research in which test and re-test protocols should be performed by students was re-planned by doing these protocols via internet-based forms. Before the study, all participating students were informed about this study. To achieve their consent in regard to participate in this study, a "tick-box" was placed prior to the questionnaire in which whether they accept that participating in this study voluntarily. The primary target for sample size was set as 300 students.

Measurement and Method:

The descriptive data will be gathered by using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for health professional students (JSE-HPS), the Turkish version of Empathic tendency scale (ETS), and sociodemographic form in which age, gender, and other information will be requested to fill out.

JSE-HPS:

JSE-HPS was originally developed by Jefferson University. It consists of 20 items each scored according to the seven-point Likert type scale in which 1 means "Strongly Disagree" while 7 means "Strongly agree". The minimum and maximum scores range from 20 to 140. Higher scores indicate a better empathic aspect or vice versa.

Empathic Tendency Scale (ETS):

ETS was originally developed in the Turkish language in 1988. Turkish validation and reliability of ETS were also conducted and found to reliable according to the Cronbach's alpha value is 0.82. ETS consists of 20 items each scored according to the five-point Likert type scale in which 1 equals "Completely contradictory" while 5 means "Completely proper". Each item is related to some ideas which are quite common in daily life. 20 and 100 are minimum and maximum scores, respectively. Higher scores indicate a better empathic aspect.

Translation and Cross-cultural Adaptation Process:

The permission was granted from the copyright Holder of JSE-HPS in order to study the reliability, validity, and adaptation of the Turkish version of JSE-HPS. The cultural adaptation was performed according to the protocol explained by Beaton et al. Steps and a detailed explanation of this protocol can be found in the literature. Briefly, an expert committee consists of study researchers separately translated the original version of the JSE-HPS into Turkish. The final version of the Turkish translated JSE-HPS was created according to the separately translated ones. This final version was re-translated to English by a native English speaker who is also capable to talk Turkish language. The expert committee eventually made a final version to which can be applicable to the participants.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 167
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey
  • İzmir, Turkey, 35565
    • Izmir Bakırçay University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 30 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being currently studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences
• Able to read, write and understand the Turkish language
• Having no mental medical conditions
• Being a volunteer to participate in this study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inability to read, write and understand Turkish language
• Not volunteer to participate in this study

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Health Professional Students; A group of students who studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences will be asked to fill the Turkish version of JSE-HPS and ETS. JSE-HPS will be asked to re-fill after seven days for retest analysis.	Other: Questionnaire; A group of students who studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences will be asked to fill the Turkish version of JSE-HPS and ETS. JSE-HPS will be asked to re-fill after seven days for retest analysis.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Jefferson Scale of Empathy Health Professional Students Questionnaire	The Turkish version of Jefferson Scale of Empathy Health Professional Students (JSE-HPS) will be applied to participants. The minimum and maximum scores for JSE-HPS can be reached to 20 and 140, respectively. The more the higher scores indicate more empathic aspect or vice versa.	Baseline
Jefferson Scale of Empathy Health Professional Students Questionnaire	The Turkish version of Jefferson Scale of Empathy Health Professional Students (JSE-HPS) will be applied to participants. The minimum and maximum scores for JSE-HPS can be reached to 20 and 140, respectively. The more the higher scores indicate more empathic aspect or vice versa.	1 week after baseline
Empathic Tendency Scale (ETS) Questionnaire	The Turkish version of Empathic Tendency Scale (ETS) Questionnaire will be applied to participants. The minimum and maximum scores can be taken from the tool are 20 and 100, respectively in which higher scores indicate better empathic attitude or vice versa.	Baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Demographic Data Form	Basic Form gathers some information related participants' age, gender etc.	Baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Izmir Bakircay University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Elif Günay İsmailoğlu, PhD, Izmir Bakircay University; Principal Investigator: Kadirhan Özdemir, PhD, Izmir Bakircay University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Kim SS, Kaplowitz S, Johnston MV. The effects of physician empathy on patient satisfaction and compliance. Eval Health Prof. 2004 Sep;27(3):237-51. doi: 10.1177/0163278704267037.
• Hojat M, Louis DZ, Markham FW, Wender R, Rabinowitz C, Gonnella JS. Physicians' empathy and clinical outcomes for diabetic patients. Acad Med. 2011 Mar;86(3):359-64. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e3182086fe1.
• Anfossi M, Numico G. Empathy in the doctor-patient relationship. J Clin Oncol. 2004 Jun 1;22(11):2258-9; author reply 2259-60. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2004.99.302. No abstract available.
• Hogan R. Development of an empathy scale. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1969 Jun;33(3):307-16. doi: 10.1037/h0027580. No abstract available.
• Fields SK, Hojat M, Gonnella JS, Mangione S, Kane G, Magee M. Comparisons of nurses and physicians on an operational measure of empathy. Eval Health Prof. 2004 Mar;27(1):80-94. doi: 10.1177/0163278703261206.
• Sherman JJ, Cramer A. Measurement of changes in empathy during dental school. J Dent Educ. 2005 Mar;69(3):338-45.
• Fields SK, Mahan P, Tillman P, Harris J, Maxwell K, Hojat M. Measuring empathy in healthcare profession students using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy: health provider--student version. J Interprof Care. 2011 Jul;25(4):287-93. doi: 10.3109/13561820.2011.566648. Epub 2011 May 9.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 15, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 20, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): December 10, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 3, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 5, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): June 9, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 16, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 13, 2020
• Last Verified: December 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Questionnaire; Empathy; Jefferson Scale of Empathy
• Other Study ID Numbers: BakircayU07/07022020

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No