The effect of empathy levels of family physicians working in Edirne city center on their defensive medical attitudes

This study aimed to investigate the factors related to defensive medicine practices and the effect of empathy levels on defensive medicine practice attitudes of family physicians working in family health centers in the city center of Edirne. The universe of our study consists of 57 family physicians who agreed to participate in the study. Data were collected with a 60-question survey consisting of sociodemographic information, questions about work environments, "Jefferson Physician Empathy Scale" and "Defensive Medicine Practices Attitude Scale". Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U, Spearman correlation and Chi-Square tests were used for statistical analyses. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The average defensive medicine practices attitude scale score of the participants was 38.77±11.79, the rate of participants who had heard of the concept of defensive medicine practices before was 80.7%, and the rate of those who thought they had sufficient knowledge was 31.6%. It was observed that 82.5% of the participants tended towards defensive medicine practices at a medium and above level, and the most common practice was to keep detailed records. We did not find a relationship between defensive medicine attitudes and sociodemographic data, title status, registered population, verbal or physical violence exposure and complaints. A positive relationship was found between the number of patients examined daily and positive defensive medicine, and it was found that the defensive medicine attitude of those working in classless and class D family medicine units was significantly higher than those working in class A. The average empathy level score of the physicians was found to be 79.95±11.93. No significant relationship was found between empathy level and defensive medicine attitudes. In order to reduce defensive medicine practices and improve physicians' working environments, it is recommended that strategies such as legal support mechanisms, in-service training and workload management be implemented. It is evaluated that the empathy level may interact with factors such as compassion fatigue, burnout and professional stress, affecting physicians' decision-making processes and defensive attitudes. Therefore, more comprehensive and holistic approaches are required to better understand the dynamics between empathy, burnout, and defensive medicine. Key words: defensive medicine, empathy, family practice