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

Objectives: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.