Including didactic teaching is associated with greater intervention effectiveness for teaching empathy to physicians¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesis r3 · q3 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i2 Interventions using didactic teaching methods were more effective (d = 0.61) than those that did not (d = 0.24), a statistically significant moderator in the pairwise meta-analysis. → Ngo Hazel 2025

Evidence¶

Ngo Hazel 2025¶

Ngo Hazel, Sokolovic Nina, Hu Julia, Jenkins Jennifer. (2025). A systematic review identifying effective teaching methods and their combinations for increasing empathy in physicians: pairwise and network meta-analysis. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-07917-x

q3 · i2 · quant-synthesis · r3

Univariate mixed-effects meta-regression within the random-effects pairwise meta-analysis (Table 2: didactic Yes k = 88, SMD .59; No k = 21, SMD .24; Q = 6.33, p = .01). The article reports didactic interventions "were more effective (d = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.45, 0.78)" than those without. The authors note this diverges from a previous meta-analysis of 18 medical-student RCTs that found no single teaching method superior.

"Interventions using didactic teaching methods were more effective (d = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.45, 0.78), on average, than those that did not use this method (d = 0.24, 95% CI:,12, 0.36)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Network meta-analysis ranks didactic-plus-rehearsal as the most effective empathy teaching-method combination, with six combinations significantly beating pure control — related
• Interventions using two teaching methods outperformed those using three, though based on few studies with wide confidence intervals — related
• Behavioural empathy interventions for physicians and medical students improve empathy skills with a moderate pooled effect (d = 0.50) — a broader claim this one bears on
• Intervention effects on empathy were larger on objective measures than on self-report measures — related
• In-person group formats were more effective than online or independent formats for empathy training — related
• Studies using pure control groups showed larger effect sizes than studies using education-as-usual controls — related