Living conditions and psychosomatic complaints in Swedish schoolchildren.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
The proportion of Swedish schoolchildren that reports psychosomatic complaints has increased during recent decades, parallel to major structural changes in Swedish society.

AIM:
To investigate the association of psychosomatic complaints in relation to household socio-economic conditions.

METHODS:
Cross-sectional study based on data from child supplements linked to nationally representative household surveys in Sweden during 2000-2003, covering a sample of 5390 children aged 10-18 y. Symptom variables were based on child interviews, while data from parental interviews were used to create socio-economic variables.

RESULTS:
Girls more often reported headache and recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) than boys, and these differences became more pronounced with age. Economic stress in the household was associated with headache (OR 1.21, p<0.05), RAP (OR 1.46, p<0.001) as well as difficulties falling asleep (OR 1.35, p<0.01), while there were no consistent associations between symptoms and social class or unemployed parents. Children in single-parent families consistently reported somewhat more symptoms than children in two-parent families (OR 1.26 for at least two of the three symptoms, p<0.05).

CONCLUSION:
Economic stress, but not social class, was a significant but moderate risk factor for all three psychosomatic symptoms. It is possible that a growing proportion of families in economic stress has contributed to the parallel increase in reported psychosomatic complaints among Swedish schoolchildren. Further studies are needed to clarify the relation between lack of money, relational strain/support and psychosomatic complaints.

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Author information

Author/s: Ostberg, Viveca (V); Alfven, Gösta (G); Hjern, Anders (A);

Affiliation: Centre for Health Equity Studies, CHESS, Stockholm University/Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and Department of Clinical Sciences, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) (Acta Paediatr), published in Norway. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Aug; vol 95 (issue 8) : pp 929-34

Dates: Created 2006/08/02; Completed 2007/01/19; Revised 2007/05/15;

PMID: 16882564, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Acta Paediatr. 2006 Aug;95(8):901-3. (PMID: 16882559)

CommentIn: Acta Paediatr. 2007 Feb;96(2):322-3. (PMID: 17429933)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Male
Psychophysiologic Disorders - epidemiology
Residence Characteristics
Risk Factors
Sex Distribution
Socioeconomic Factors
Sweden - epidemiology

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