Is empathy related to work participation, work role functioning and productivity in multiple sclerosis patients?

Background: Empathy refers to the ability to understand other persons intentions, predict their behaviour and experience an emotion triggered by their emotion. It allows us to interact with the social world and has been associated with improved labor climate and teamwork. Empathy has a down side as well, considering its associations with Neuroticism and fatigue in professionals caring for suffering people. A few studies have reported reduced degrees of empathy, empathic concern and fantasy in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The current study examines relations between empathy and work participation, work role functioning , productivity and other clinical and personal variables in employed relapsing-remitting MS patients. Methods: In the context of the MS@Work study, 19 unemployed and 148 employed patients with relapsing-remitting MS completed the Baron-Cohen"s Empathy Quotient and questionnaires on demographics, work role functioning and productivity, physical and cognitive functioning, fatigue, depression, anxiety, personality and coping. Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to examine group differences in empathy. Correlation analyses and stepwise linear regression analysis were used to examine relations between empathy and work role functioning, productivity, demographic, clinical and personal variables in employed MS patients. The significance level was set at 0.05. We used p< =0.001 for the correlations. Results: Empathy was, although not statistically significant, lower in unemployed as compared with employed MS patients (U=1059.50, p=.081, r=.14). Empathy was higher in females (U=1409.50, p=.002, ) and in patients with a higher educational level (H(7)=17,99, p=.012). We found significant relations between empathy and the personality traits Agreeableness (rs=.560, p < .001), Conscientiousness (rs=.287, p< .001) and Extraversion (rs=.263, p=.001). Empathy did not correlate with work role functioning and productivity. In a stepwise linear regression, controlling for gender and education, the personality trait Agreeableness (β=.50, t(147) = 7.21, p< .001) was positively associated with empathy (R²=.41, p< .001). Conclusions: Empathy did not differ significantly between employed and unemployed MS patients. Empathy was not associated with work role functioning and productivity in employed MS patients, but was associated with the personality trait Agreeableness. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine further relations between empathy and employment.