Association between personal, medical and positive psychological variables with somatization in university health sciences students

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective To measure personal, medical and psychological positive and negative variables and to determine their relation with somatization in a sample of health sciences students. Subjects and methods: A total of 594 (34.43%) of the 1725 health science students of a public university answered an online survey with personal and medical information as well as the following psychological variables: phsychological well-being, five facets mindfulness questionnaire (FFMQ), life satisfaction, depression, and academic stress. Additionally, the presence of 11 somatic symptoms and 11 diseases during the last year was measured. Results: Most students were women (74.06%) who were 19.96 ± 4.28 years old. The global frequency of somatization in the previous year was 66.59%, and the presence of any measured disease 14.75%. With the multivariate analysis, self-acceptance was the most related variable (negatively) with somatization, followed by the sum of diseases, female gender, academic stress, smoking, and depression, in a model with an R-value of 0.634, self-acceptance was also the most related variable (negatively) with depression, being this last the most related variable with academic stress. Conclusions: After analyzing all variables considered in this study, self-acceptance was the most related variable with somatization and depression; this highlights the importance of strengthening the acceptance of the self in the student population in order to prevent these conditions and their consequences.