The empathy of general practitioners and association with morbimortality in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Introduction: patients’ experiences of empathy may be associated with beneficial outcomes in diabetes mellitus. Objective: To determine the association between empathy in care and outcomes in diabetic patients. Methods: A pragmatic, cluster-randomized, pragmatic controlled trial was conducted to examine the effects of empathy in intensive multifactorial treatment among people with diabetes. Results: Higher CARE score terciles were associated with lower all-cause mortality rates compared to the low CARE score tercile in the univariate model. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the value of the empathic human aspects of medical care in the mortality and quality of life of diabetic patients.