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Subjective Body Complaints as an Indicator of Somatization in Elderly Patients

Received Feb. 15, 2002; revision received June 24, 2002; accepted July 11, 2002. From the Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Münster; the Institute of Gerontology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; and the Haus Berge Geriatric Clinic of the St. Elisabeth Hospital, Essen, Germany. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Schneider, Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Münster, Domagkstr. 22, D-48129 Münster, Germany; schneig{at}mednet.uni-muenster.de (e-mail).

The authors examined the correlation of subjective body complaints (measured by the Giessen Subjective Complaints List) with sociodemographic data, objective health measures, measures of subjective well-being, and clinicians' ratings of somatization and psychological impairment in 251 cognitively unimpaired general hospital inpatients aged 60 years. The level of subjective body complaints correlated most highly with self-assessed life satisfaction and age-related changes and with the clinicians' rating of somatization. The results suggest that the level of subjective body complaints is determined by subjective well-being rather than by objective health measures, and thus subjective body complaints may be an indicator of somatization in elderly inpatients.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. Schneider, G. Driesch, A. Kruse, H.-G. Nehen, and G. Heuft Old and Ill and Still Feeling Well? Determinants of Subjective Well-Being in >=60 Year Olds: The Role of the Sense of Coherence Am J Geriatr Psychiatry, October 1, 2006; 14(10): 850 - 859. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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