ACTITUDES DE LOS ESTUDIANTES COLOMBIANOS DE MEDICINA HACIA LA PRáCTICA DE LA DISECCIóN EN ANATOMíA Y SU RELACIóN CON EL PUNTAJE EN LA ESCALA DE EMPATíA MéDICA DE JEFFERSON

background. anatomical dissection of human corpses is a fundamental tool when teaching anatomy, thereby leading to gaining theoretical and emotional knowledge and raising awareness regarding behaviour which could be important in building up the doctor-patient relationship. objective. characterising undergraduate medical students' attitudes towards dissection and their relationship with a score on the jefferson scale of physician empathy (jspe). materials and methods. this was a cross-sectional study which used information collected from 5 medicine faculties in bogotá (colombia) during the second semester, 2010. the instrument included socio-demographic variables regarding attitudes towards dissection and the jspe. prevalence ratios and the pertinent 95% confidence intervals were calculated. results. 904 students were surveyed; their average age in years was 19.4 +/- 2.8 (51.8% were female and 48.2% male). dissection evoked positive emotions which were related to a greater interest in learning. average jspe score was 113.34. females obtained a significantly higher score (p=0.012). none of the prevalence ratios were significant. conclusion. students' attitudes towards dissection were positive in this study and were not related to a score on the jspe.