Psychosomatic complaints and sense of coherence among adolescents in a county in Sweden: a cross-sectional school survey

Simonsson Bo, Nilsson, Leppert Jerzy, Diwan

Description

Over the last five to ten years there has been an increase in psychosomatic complaints (PSC) in Swedish children. The objective of the study was to examine the relation between PSC and sense of coherence (SOC). Methods A cross-sectional school survey in the county of Västmanland, Sweden. All 16- and 19-year old adolescents present at school on the day of the survey were asked to complete a questionnaire in their classrooms during a one-lesson hour session under the supervision of their teachers. Totally 3,998 students in both private and public schools, studying in ninth grade elementary school or third grade secondary school participated. Results The results from our study show that there is a statistically significant relation between PSC and SOC among adolescents. It also shows that adolescents with a weak SOC score have more symptoms of PSC. Conclusion Our study indicates that SOC can help the adolescents to choose a coping strategy that is appropriate for the situation and thereby may prevent them from developing PSC. However, additional studies are needed to confirm our findings.

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 8
• Langue: English

Extrait

BioPsychoSocial Medicine

BioMedCentral

Open Access Research Psychosomatic complaints and sense of coherence among adolescents in a county in Sweden: a cross-sectional school survey 1,3 2 2 3 Bo Simonsson* , Kent W Nilsson , Jerzy Leppert and Vinod K Diwan

1 2 Address: Department of Community Medicine, County Council of Västmanland, Västerås, Sweden, Centre for Clinical Research, Uppsala 3 University, Central Hospital, Västerås, Sweden and Department of International Health (IHCAR), Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden Email: Bo Simonsson*  [e-mail]; Kent W Nilsson  [e-mail]; Jerzy Leppert  [e-mail]; Vinod K Diwan  [e-mail] * Corresponding author

Published: 8 February 2008 Received: 2 November 2007 Accepted: 8 February 2008 BioPsychoSocial Medicine2008,2:4 doi:10.1186/1751-0759-2-4 This article is available from: http://www.bpsmedicine.com/content/2/1/4 © 2008 Simonsson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract Background:Over the last five to ten years there has been an increase in psychosomatic complaints (PSC) in Swedish children. The objective of the study was to examine the relation between PSC and sense of coherence (SOC).

Methods:A cross-sectional school survey in the county of Västmanland, Sweden. All 16- and 19- year old adolescents present at school on the day of the survey were asked to complete a questionnaire in their classrooms during a one-lesson hour session under the supervision of their teachers. Totally 3,998 students in both private and public schools, studying in ninth grade elementary school or third grade secondary school participated.

Results:The results from our study show that there is a statistically significant relation between PSC and SOC among adolescents. It also shows that adolescents with a weak SOC score have more symptoms of PSC.

Conclusion:Our study indicates that SOC can help the adolescents to choose a coping strategy that is appropriate for the situation and thereby may prevent them from developing PSC. However, additional studies are needed to confirm our findings.

Introduction The major causes of mortality and morbidity among ado lescents have, during the last decades, shifted from infec tious to behavioural aetiologies [1]. This shift is mostly due to risk taking behaviours among adolescents that lead to, among others, injuries and drug and alcohol misuse [2]. Mental health problems are also common among young people. The mental health problems can range from fully developed psychiatric diseases to learning disa bilities, behavioural problems in school, speech and lan guage problems and psychosomatic complaints (PSC) [3]. To better understand the development of psychosomatic

complaints among adolescents, it was decided to perform a populationbased study, which is to our knowledge, the first to examine the relation between PSC and sense of coherence (SOC) among adolescents.

Psychosomatic complaints The symptoms of psychosomatic disorders usually begin during adolescence or early adulthood and are character ised by many vague physical complaints. Any part of the body may be affected, although the symptoms and their frequencies vary. Common symptoms among adolescents are headaches, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain,

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