# Does Patient Care Depend on Patients’ Health Behaviors? A Study Investigating the Impact of Empathy Among Future Healthcare Professionals on Their Willingness to Help

## TL;DR

This study explores how patients' health behaviors and healthcare professionals' empathy affect their willingness to help, finding that healthy behaviors and higher empathy increase willingness to help.

## Contribution

The study introduces the nuanced role of cognitive and affective empathy in willingness to help, particularly in the context of unhealthy patient behaviors.

## Key findings

- Participants showed greater willingness to help patients with healthy behaviors.
- Cognitive empathy was more strongly linked to willingness to help in cases of unhealthy behaviors.
- Empathy was moderately associated with willingness to help, but gender and grade did not predict willingness directly.

## Abstract

This study examines the impact of patients’ healthy and unhealthy behaviors on future healthcare professionals’ willingness to help. Additionally, it also investigates how empathy among future healthcare professionals shapes their willingness to help.

Three hundred future healthcare professionals completed sociodemographic and empathy questionnaires and evaluated 12 clinical vignettes assessing their willingness to help. The vignettes depicted patients engaging in either healthy or unhealthy behaviors.

Participants reported a greater willingness to help patients displaying healthy behaviors compared to those exhibiting unhealthy behaviors (small effect). A moderate positive association was also observed between empathy and willingness to help. Notably, while affective empathy remained a significant correlate, cognitive empathy showed a stronger association with willingness to help in scenarios involving unhealthy behaviors. Although both gender and grade significantly predicted empathy (with moderate and small effects, respectively), neither variable significantly predicted willingness to help.

The findings demonstrate that patients’ health behaviors influence willingness to help and highlight the role of empathy in shaping these intentions. The study therefore supports integrating targeted empathy-focused training into academic curricula to strengthen empathic and related interpersonal skills among future healthcare professionals.