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Table 4 Prevalence (%) of subjective health complaints expressed as psychosomatic symptoms, headache and upper infection symptoms and musculoskeletal pain symptoms in the last six months in girls and boys

From: Subjective health complaints in older adolescents are related to perceived stress, anxiety and gender – a cross-sectional school study in Northern Sweden

Subjective health complaint indexes

Girls (%)

Boys (%)

P-value

 

Never/ seldom

Sometimes

Fairly often/very often

Never/ seldom

Sometimes

Fairly often/very often

 

Psychosomatic symptoms variables ª

       

More tired than before

25.1

36.1

38.8

47.7

31.9

20.3

0.000

Sadness

28.9

36.1

35.0

67.8

24.1

8.2

0.000

Acid stomach, stomach ache

60.2

25.0

14.8

86.2

10.9

3.0

0.000

Pain and aches in heart and chest

73.6

16.2

10.1

80.6

13.4

5.9

0.019

Palpitations and extra heart beats

79.9

13.7

6.4

87.6

8.7

3.7

0.000

Headache and upper respiratory infection symptoms variables ª

Headache

34.2

32.6

33.2

61.4

27.5

11.1

0.000

Cold symptoms

38.3

36.5

25.2

58.9

27.7

13.4

0.000

Cough and hoarseness

61.9

26.5

11.6

75.5

18.6

5.9

0.000

Nausea

58.3

26.2

15.6

86.8

10.4

2.7

0.000

Musculoskeletal pain symptoms variablesª

Neck and shoulder pain

40.1

25.4

34.5

67.5

21.4

10.9

0.000

Low back pain

52.3

23.5

24.2

68.2

16.8

15.0

0.000

Pain in extremity joints

65.0

22.3

12.7

71.5

18.6

9.9

0.079

Muscle pain

64.4

25.6

10.0

71.0

20.5

8.4

0.05

General self-rated health b

Overall good health

79.5

87.8

0.000

Medication b

   

Antidepressants or sedatives (yes)

4.7

3.5

0.3

Non-prescription painkillers, every week

17.9

7.2

0.000

  1. Response alternatives were “never/seldom”, “sometimes”, and “fairly often/very often” (Chi2 test with p-values for between group differences).
  2. ªSubjective health complaint indexes included variables yielded from factor analysis (see Table 1). bGeneral self-rated health and medication not included in the factor analysis.