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Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to identify and describe somatic symptom profiles in the general adult population in order to enable further epidemiological research within multiple somatic symptoms.
Methods
Information on 19 self-reported common somatic symptoms was achieved from a population-based questionnaire survey of 36,163 randomly selected adults in the Capital Region of Denmark (55.4% women). The participants stated whether they had been considerably bothered by each symptom within 14 days prior to answering the questionnaire. We used latent class analysis to identify the somatic symptom profiles. The profiles were further described by their association with age, sex, chronic disease, and self-perceived health.
Results
We identified 10 different somatic symptom profiles defined by number, type, and site of the symptoms. The majority of the population (74.0%) had a profile characterized by no considerable bothering symptoms, while a minor group of 3.9% had profiles defined by a high risk of multiple somatic symptoms. The remaining profiles were more likely to be characterized by a few specific symptoms. The profiles could further be described by their associations with age, sex, chronic disease, and self-perceived health.
Conclusion
The identified somatic symptom profiles could be distinguished by number, type, and site of the symptoms. The profiles have the potential to be used in further epidemiological studies on risk factors and prognosis of somatic symptoms but should be confirmed in other population-based studies with specific focus on symptom burden.
Supplementary materials
Table S1 Model fit statistics for latent class models with 1–15 classes based on data on 19 self-reported symptoms
Table S2 Classification table for the latent model with 10 classes based on 19 self-reported symptoms
Table S3 Conditional probabilities of the symptoms given the 9 classes in the LCA model based on 13 more commonly measured symptoms including class size and expected number of symptoms
Table S4 OR for being in the symptom profiles compared to the healthy profile, based on the LCA on 13 symptoms
Table S5 The probability of poor self-perceived health within each of the 9 symptom profiles based on the LCA on 13 symptoms
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the participants in the health survey and the team behind the survey at the Research Centre for Prevention and Health, the Capital Region of Denmark, for their great work in collecting and assuring data of high quality. This study was a part of the Danish study of Functional Disorders (DanFunD) funded by The Lundbeck Foundation (grant number R155-2013-14070) and TrygFonden (grant number 7-11-0213). The DanFunD scientific management group consists of Professor MD DMSc Torben Jørgensen (PI), Professor MD DMSc Per Fink, Senior consultant MD PhD Lene Falgaard Eplov, Senior researcher MSc PhD Sine Skovbjerg, and Head of research MD DMSc Jesper Mehlsen.
Author contributions
ME contributed to the conception and design of the study, performed and interpreted all the analyses of the data, and drafted the article. TJ and AS contributed to the conception and design of the study and interpretation of the data and provided supervision. TMD contributed to the interpretation of the data. PF contributed to the conception and design of the study and interpretation of the data. NBJ contributed to the acquisition of the data and suggestions for analyses. CHP, LFE, and SS contributed to the conception and design of the study. SK contributed to the conception and design of the study and interpretation of the data and supervised the statistical analyses. All authors contributed to critically revising the paper for important intellectual content, and all authors read and approved the final article.
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.