Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40028385›Full record

ArticleGlobal mental health (Cambridge, England)2025

Exploring the delivery of empathic care in task-shared settings: A psychometric study in rural Pakistan.

Rakhshanda Liaquat, Ahmed Waqas, Tayyaba Qadeer, Abid Malik, Najia Atif, Siham Sikander, Duolao Wang, Atif Rahman

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Global mental health (Cambridge, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Rakhshanda LiaquatHuman Development Research Foundation, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Ahmed WaqasInstitute of Population Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3772-194X
Tayyaba QadeerHuman Development Research Foundation, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Abid MalikHealth Services Academy, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Najia AtifHuman Development Research Foundation, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Siham SikanderInstitute of Population Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0223-7234
Duolao WangLiverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
Atif RahmanInstitute of Population Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2066-4467

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Empathy plays a crucial role in psychosocial and psychological interventions, greatly impacting rapport building, patient adherence, and satisfaction with treatment. Empathetic interactions enhance patient's self-reflection and the delivery of more personalized therapeutic interventions tailored to the unique needs of each patient, thereby improving the overall quality of care. Despite empathy being central to psychosocial interventions, there are currently no valid and reliable patient-centered tools that assess the lay-therapist empathy that they show and/or exhibit toward their patients. In this study, the patient-rated Empathy Scale for Lay Therapists was developed to assess empathy in community health workers delivering psychosocial interventions. Psychometric validation was based on a cross-sectional study embedded in a non-inferiority cluster randomized trial of the Thinking Healthy Programme for perinatal depression in Pakistan. Community testing with perinatal women confirmed the scale's understandability and logical structure, highlighting its face validity. Among the 980 trial participants, a high level of agreement with the Empathy Scale for Lay Therapists (mean score 2.616) was observed, indicating effective communication and empathy from health workers. The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.96). Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed a unidimensional structure, capturing 87.81% of the total variance, with strong factor loadings.

Indexed as

community health workersdigital appdigital mental healthempathyperinatal depression

Identifiers

PMID40028385
PMCPMC11867816

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.