ALTRUISTIC BEHAVIOUR AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS: A COMPARATIVE CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Introduction: Altruism or selflessness is an act of kindness to other people's well-being. This is of significant value of medical practice over the years. Increasingly heavy workload over the years can have an impact on the selfless behaviour of medical students. This research project aims to determine the magnitude of altruistic behaviour and to compare this behaviour between year one and year five medical students of Universiti Kuala Lumpur Royal College Medicine Perak (UniKL RCMP). Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing a set of questionnaire based on Altruism Personality Scale (APS) to year one and year five respondents either by face to face or on-line using a Google Form. The questionnaire includes an element to measure the degree of altruistic personality in students and questions on possible factors affecting that behavior. A total of 207 students participated in the study. Results: It was found that 92 (44.4) % of respondents possessed altruistic personality out of which 56 (41.2%) were from year one and 36 (50.7%) were from year five. Male respondents had a much higher altruistic personality i.e. 52.9% versus 43.3% female respondents, (p < 0.05). The percentage of respondents who were more involved in volunteer activities with more selfless behaviour was 57.9% compared to 41.0% of respondents who were less involved (p<0.05). There was no significant association between the altruistic personality and respondents’ hometown and their parent’s level of education. Conclusion: In this study, altruistic personality is greater among older students than younger medical students. It was found that students who participated more in volunteer activities, especially male students, had a higher selfless personality than less active and female students. Parents’ education level and hometown had no association with altruistic personality in this study.