ABSTRACT
Background & objectives: Empathy and Emotional Intelligence are the two affective domain parameters which significantly affect a doctor’s way of treating patients; hence they may influence the doctor-patient relationship. Establishing a proper doctor-patient relationship has a great impact on professional success of the doctor. Thus, the present study was aimed to assess whether there is any association between empathy of dental practitioners towards their patients and the dental practitioners’ emotional intelligence. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 243 dental practitioners including clinicians, academicians and post-graduate students from Bareilly city who were instructed to complete a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of the Health Professional (HP) version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) and the Schutte’s Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIS). Pearson’s correlation coefficient and linear regression were used to test the statistical significance of the observations. Results: A positive correlation was found between empathy and emotional intelligence. The correlation was significant p=0.05, even after adjusting for the confounders and the regression model showed significance with r value of 0.12 Interpretation & Conclusion: Empathetic dentists were found to have higher emotional intelligence. Irrespective of variations in age, gender, qualification, occupation and years of working experience, empathy and emotional intelligence showed positive correlation.