Frequency of common psychosomatic symptoms and its influence on self-perceived health in a Hungarian student population

Abstract

The objectives of this investigation were to describe the frequency of some common psychosomatic symptoms and variations in self-assessed health status and to determine whether there are gender differences in these symptoms and the perception of one's own health in a student population. Finally, we examined the relationship between the frequency of symptoms and self-perceived health. The design is a cross-sectional survey, as the first phase of a longitudinal cohort study. The participants in the study (n=691) were students of the medical faculty of Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Medical University, Szeged, Hungary, aged 18–31 years consisting of 39.4% men and 60.6% women. The response rate was 70.5%. Data were collected by using a self-administered questionnaire containing various items designed to measure self-perceived health and health-related variables including some common psychosomatic symptoms. The following symptoms appeared the most frequent among students in both sexes: sleeping problems, chronic fatigue and backache. Using the appropriate t-test, mean scores of the symptom indices by sex showed an excess of occurrence among female students in particular of 2 symptoms: tension headache and chronic fatigue. Most students evaluated their own health as good. Students who scored lower on self-perceived health had experienced more symptoms. Based on these results we can conclude that the frequency of the symptoms under study has an influence on self-perceived health. A follow-up of the survey population seems to be necessary.