Prevalence Of Health Complaints Research Articles

Food diversity: its relation to children’s health and consequent economic burden

BackgroundThis study investigates the impact of low food diversity on the health status of children using the Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) and Dietary Serving Score (DSS) in a sub-district with the highest percentage of poor households. The economic burden of low food diversity was observed by analysing the cost of illness in the children with low food diversity.MethodsData from 329 children were collected. We determined the impact of DDS and DSS and other factors on the health status of children aged 2–14 years, using a probit model. The cost of illness (e.g., typhus, stomach ulcers, coughs, flu, and fever) due to low food diversity was calculated from medical registration fees, medical action costs, transportation costs, and other costs.ResultsThe results shows that a 1% point increase in DDS or DSS potentially decreases children’s health complaints by 10% and 8%, respectively. Given the current 26% prevalence of health complaints among children with low DDS, the annual economic burden reaches US$75.72 per child per household. In addition, the current 41% prevalence of children with low DDS resulted in an annual cost to the government of US$153.45 per child.ConclusionsThe effect of inadequate dietary diversity on children’s health is potentially high and contributes to the economic burden on households and the government.

The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Occurrence of Psychosomatic Symptoms: Are They Related?

Most studies on the coronavirus pandemic focus on clinical aspects of the COVID-19 disease. However, less attention is paid to other health aspects of the pandemic. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the coronavirus pandemic (risk of infection by virus together with associated measures taken to combat it), and the occurrence of a wide range of psychosomatic symptoms and to explore if there is any factor that plays a role in this association. We collected data from a sample of Czech adults (n = 1431) and measured the occurrence of nine health complaints, respondents’ experience during the pandemic and sociodemographic characteristics. The results showed associations between the coronavirus pandemic and increased psychosomatic symptoms and negative emotions. We further found higher risks of increased health complaints in younger people and women. It is also possible that there is higher risk of increased health complaints for respondents with secondary school education, students, and highly spiritual people, but this relationship has to be further investigated. In contrast, respondents with their highest achieved education level being secondary school graduation had a lower risk of increased frequency of stomach-ache. We also found that more negative emotions could increase the frequency of health complaints. Our findings suggest that the coronavirus pandemic and associated government measures could have a significant influence on the prevalence of health complaints and emotional state.

The medicine use and corresponding subjective health complaints among adolescents, a cross‐national survey

Medicine use among children and young people is under-researched. Studies that investigated cross-national patterns in adolescents' medicine use practice are rare. This study aims to investigate adolescents' medicine use for corresponding health complaints in Europe and USA. Nationally representative samples of adolescents from 19 countries and regions in Europe and USA completed an anonymous, standardised questionnaire as part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children 2005/2006 survey. The prevalence of health complaints and medicine use were determined. The influence of the frequency of medicine use, age, gender and country of residence, on the likelihood of medicine use was assessed using multilevel multivariate logistic regression, with separate analyses for boys and girls. Both health complaints and medicine use were common among adolescents. Medicine use was strongly associated with the frequency of health complaints. The prevalence of both medicine use and health complaints was higher among girls than boys. Boys and girls with weekly health complaints were both similarly likely to report elevated rates of medicine use. The findings indicated that adolescents who report more frequent recurrent health complaints are also more likely to report more frequent medicine use for their health complaints. Adolescent boys with weekly health complaints have the same risk of medicine use as girls with weekly health complaints. The importance of educating school-aged children to interpret their bodily feelings and complaints and to use medicines appropriately is of high priority.

Perceived job demands relate to self-reported health complaints

Illness and illness behaviour are important problems in the Dutch workforce. Illness has been associated with job demands, with high demands relating to poorer health. It has not been reported whether subjective health complaints relate to job demands. To investigate whether perceived (physical and mental) workload and specific job demands are associated with self-reported health complaints. Cross-sectional study of a random sample of 983 male employees working in manufacturing industry. Job demands and health complaints were investigated using the self-completed Basic Occupational Health Questionnaire. The relationship between demands and health complaints were studied using logistic regression analysis with health complaints as the outcome variable. The questionnaires of 867 workers (88%) were suitable for analysis. The prevalence of health complaints was high. Physical workload was related to musculoskeletal symptoms. Standing work predicted pain in the legs and thoracic as well as low back pain, while sedentary work predicted low back pain. Heavy lifting predicted low back pain and pain in the extremities. Regular bending predicted low back pain and pain in the legs. Repetitive movements predicted pain in the arms and thoracic as well as low back pain. Mental workload was associated with fatigue and chest pain. Working under time pressure and working behind schedule were not related to self-reported health complaints. Perceived physical job demands matched with self-reported musculoskeletal complaints, whereas perceived mental job demands were unrelated to specific complaints.

The Determinants of Prevalence of Health Complaints Among Young Competitive Swimmers

The Determinants of Prevalence of Health Complaints Among Young Competitive Swimmers

Health complaints and sickness absence in Norway, 1996–2003

From 1996 to 2003, the total number of sickness absence days increased by 65% in Norway. To investigate if this could be explained by a corresponding increase in the prevalence of self-reported health complaints in the same period. Representative samples of the Norwegian working population in 1996 (n = 838) and 2003 (n = 637) answered the subjective health complaints (SHC) questionnaire. The single items of the SHC questionnaire were matched with the corresponding sickness absence statistics from the National Insurance Administration in 1996 and 2003. The main finding was a poor concordance between the change in prevalence of health complaints and the change in the prevalence of sickness absence for diagnoses corresponding to these complaints. The prevalence of health complaints in Norway was high and relatively stable from 1996 to 2003. The only complaints that increased in prevalence during the period were allergy and severe asthma. Sickness absence for health complaints, however, showed a general increase. The diagnoses with the largest percentage increase in sickness absence were sleep problems, tiredness, anxiety and palpitation, although the absolute number of individuals with sickness absence for these complaints was small. The increased sickness absence in Norway from 1996 to 2003 cannot be explained by an increase in health complaints in the general population in the same period. The increase in sickness absence is most likely to be explained by multifactorial causes, such as changes in working life and health expectations.

Functional disorders--a cause of increasing work absence?

In this issue of Occupational Medicine, IIhlebaek et al. [1] report on health complaints and sickness absence. Against the backdrop of a 65% increase in sickness absence days over the 7 years to 2003 they discovered that the prevalence of health complaints, while high, had been stable over this period apart from allergy and asthma. Although the research is from a single Nordic country, it is likely that their findings are applicable throughout Western Europe. What might account for this apparent discrepancy? Despite conflicting trends perhaps there is a clue in another of their findings—that while their absolute numbers were relatively small, the largest increase in sickness absence was related to sleep problems, tiredness and anxiety symptoms. These are non-specific symptoms, common to each of us as individuals and certainly familiar to clinicians as a substantial part of their workload. These are also closely associated with the functional disorders. Functional disorders are characterized by combinations of symptoms which can be associated with virtually any body system. Symptoms can be changeable, affecting different bodily systems and overlapping between one type of disorder and another. These disorders have no clear pathophysiological basis and are also not merely a surrogate ...

Socio-economic health differences in the Netherlands: A review of recent empirical findings

Evidence on variation in the frequency of health problems between socio-economic groups in the Dutch population has accumulated rapidly in recent years. This paper presents a review of these recent data. It is clear now that a lower socio-economic status is associated with a higher frequency of a wide range of health problems. This negative association has consistently been found for the following health indicators: birth weight; adult body height; prevalence of health complaints; prevalence of many chronic conditions; prevalence of disability; incidence of long-term work incapacity; perceived general health; adult mortality. Inconsistent findings were reported for: children's body height; prevalence of some chronic conditions; incidence of sickness absence (short-term work incapacity); perinatal mortality. The magnitude of the differences varies from study to study, and possibly from health problem to health problem. In studies categorizing the study population in 3–6 hierarchically ordered socio-economic groups on the basis of either education or occupational status, the Relative Risks (of the lowest versus the highest socio-economic group) mostly lie between 1 and 2. Exceptions are prevalence of disability and incidence of long-term work incapacity where Relative Risks between 2 and 4 have been found. A direct comparison with data from other countries is problematic, but at first sight the differences as observed in the Netherlands seem to be of the same order of magnitude as those observed in other industrialized countries. Although most Relative Risks imply ‘weak associations’ from a technical-epidemiological point of view, the Population Attributable Risks are substantial (generally between 0.25 and 0.40), underlining the public health impact of socio-economic health differences. Information on trends in health inequalities over time is limited to children's body height and adult mortality. For children's body height a substantial decrease of inequalities was found between 1964–1966 and 1980. For adult mortality, on the other hand, there is (indirect) evidence of a widening of the mortality gap between the 1950s and the 1980s. The evidence on specific factors which are involved in the ‘causal chain’ between socio-economic status and health problems is rather limited at the moment. A negative association with socio-economic status has been reported for the following risk factors: smoking; obesity; a number of unfavourable material living conditions; a number of unfavourable physical working conditions; psychosocial stress; lack of social support; less adequate supply/use of health care. On the other hand, study results have not shown a higher prevalence in the lower socio-economic groups for: high alcohol consumption; high blood pressure; high serum cholesterol. Some unfavourable food habits (e.g. a high fat intake) are more common in lower socio-economic groups, but others are not (e.g. high intake of poly-unsaturated fatty acids). The paper ends with a number of recommendations for further descriptive and explanatory studies.