A strong association between non-musculoskeletal symptoms and musculoskeletal pain symptoms: results from a population study

BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders

Research Article

Dag Bruusgaard¹  Hedda Tschudi-Madsen²  Ingvild Dalen²  Mona Kjeldsberg²  Jørund Straand²  Bård Natvig³  Yusman Kamaleri⁴  Camilla Ihlebaek⁵ 

[1] Department of Community Health, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;Department of General Practice, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO BOX 1130, 0318, Blindern, Oslo, Norway;Department of General Practice, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO BOX 1130, 0318, Blindern, Oslo, Norway;National Resource Centre for Rehabilitation in Rheumatology, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway;Department of Rare Diseases and Disabilities, Oslo University Hospital Ullevål, Oslo, Norway;Health UMB, IHA, University of Life Sciences (UMB), Aas, Norway;Uni Health, Norway;

关键词: Epidemiology;    Cross-sectional;    General population;    Musculoskeletal pain;    Medically unexplained symptoms;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2474-12-285

 received in 2011-07-05, accepted in 2011-12-18,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThere is a lack of knowledge about the pattern of symptom reporting in the general population as most research focuses on specific diseases or symptoms. The number of musculoskeletal pain sites is a strong predictor for disability pensioning and, hence, is considered to be an important dimension in symptom reporting. The simple method of counting symptoms might also be applicable to non-musculoskeletal symptoms, rendering further dimensions in describing individual and public health. In a general population, we aimed to explore the association between self-reported non-musculoskeletal symptoms and the number of pain sites.MethodsWith a cross-sectional design, the Standardised Nordic Questionnaire and the Subjective Health Complaints Inventory were used to record pain at ten different body sites and 13 non-musculoskeletal symptoms, respectively, among seven age groups in Ullensaker, Norway (n = 3,227).ResultsResults showed a strong, almost linear relationship between the number of non-musculoskeletal symptoms and the number of pain sites (r = 0.55). The number and type of non-musculoskeletal symptoms had an almost equal explanatory power in the number of pain sites reported (27.1% vs. 28.2%).ConclusionThe linear association between the number of non-musculoskeletal and musculoskeletal symptoms might indicate that the symptoms share common characteristics and even common underlying causal factors. The total burden of symptoms as determined by the number of symptoms reported might be an interesting generic indicator of health and well-being, as well as present and future functioning. Research on symptom reporting might also be an alternative pathway to describe and, possibly, understand the medically unexplained multisymptom conditions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Tschudi-Madsen et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.