Objective To investigate empathy levels of medical students in a military medical university and to explore influencing factors. Methods Self-developed demographic information questionnaire

Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSPE-S)

Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)

Chinese Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS) were used to collect date during June and October 2016. Medical undergraduate students were conveniently enrolled in the survey. SPSS 17.0 software was used to do statistical analysis. T test

ANOVA

chi square test or Fisher exact test was used to compare the data of different categories of students. Results A total of 683 questionnaires were distributed and 594 valid questionnaires were returned representing valid response rate of 86.97%. Students had an above-average level of medical empathy with JSPE-S score 104.11±19.66

and IRI score 51.63±10.08. There was a statically difference on level of medical empathy between groups of students with different genders

specialties

professional satisfaction

future career desire

and relative courses learning experience (all P<0.05). Medical empathy was significantly negatively correlated with perceived stress (r=-0.392，P<0.001) and significantly positively correlated with perceived stress (r=0.298，P<0.001). Conclusion Targeted strategies should be conducted to improve empathy levels of students in the military medical university.