Gender differences in the effect of medical humanities program on medical students’ empathy: a prospective longitudinal study

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of participants in the study

Cohort	PI/MH_(lim)	MMI/MH_(lim)	MMI/MH_(ext)
Preclinical Medical Humanities program	limited MH	limited MH	extended MH
Admission system	Personal Interview	Multiple Mini Interviews	Multiple Mini Interviews
	n = 91	n = 86	n = 85
*Gender*^a
Men	59 (64.8%)	50 (58.1%)	38 (45.2%)
Women	32 (35.2%)	36 (41.9%)	46 (54.8%)
*Age*	25.98 ± 3.52	26.10 ± 2.60	25.57 ± 3.56
*Marital Status*
Single	67 (73.6%)	62 (75.6%)	63 (75.0%)
Married	24 (26.4%)	20 (24.4%)	21 (25.0%)
*Religiosity*
Secular	46 (51.7%)	47 (59.5%)	43 (54.4%)
Traditional	13 (14.6%)	10 (12.7%)	12 (15.2%)
Religious	30 (33.7%)	22 (27.8%)	24 (30.4%)
*Ethnicity*^b
Jew	73 (81.1%)	78 (96.3%)	71 (87.7%)
Arab	17 (18.9%)	3 (3.7%)	10 (12.3%)

^aThe proportion of women was about one third in the PI/MH_(lim) cohort increasing to more than a half in the MMI/MH_(ext) cohort (χ²₍₂₎ = 6.99; p = 0.030)
^bA significant difference in distribution of ethnic origin between cohorts were observed (χ²₍₂₎ = 9.40; p = 0.009)

ISSN: 1472-6920