What makes old people perceive symptoms of illness? The impact of psychological and social factors

Abstract

Feeling ill is by definition a subjective experience. Independent of biological background, people differ in their inclination to perceive and report feelings of illness. Three factors were assumed to affect the way symptoms of illness are perceived and reported: the sense of coherence (SOC), the social network and the degree of depression. Fifty-eight elderly individuals reported symptoms according to a symptom checklist. They also reported social network structures/functions and degrees of depression according to standardized questionnaires. SOC showed to be strongest bivariately correlated to the number of reported symptoms, followed by the degree of depression and social network. Multiple regression analyses showed that SOC alone was related to symptoms of depression and tension. In addition, SOC in combination with social network was related to the total symptom report, and depressive mood in combination with social network was related to symptoms from muscles and skeleton. The main finding of this study is the strong connection between SOC and the perception and reporting of symptoms of illness.The results support the idea that SOC serves as a buffer against the experience of stress, but also that SOC interacts with social context variables to define the sickness behavior.