| 1. |
- Högberg, Björn, et al.
(author)
-
Trends in adolescent psychosomatic complaints: a quantile regression analysis of Swedish HBSC data 1985–2017
- 2023
-
In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. - : Sage Publications. - 1403-4948 .- 1651-1905. ; 51, s. 619-624
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background and aims: According to recent criticism, survey-based measures of adolescent psychosomatic complaints have poor content validity insofar as they conflate trivial with severe complaints. It is argued that this means that estimates of prevalence and trends in complaints may reflect trivial complaints that are not indicators of health problems. In this study, two observable implications of this criticism were investigated: (a) that self-reported psychosomatic complaints should have a bimodal distribution; and (b) that the increase in complaints over time should be of approximately equal size throughout the distribution of complaints.Methods: Three decades (1985/1986–2017/2018) of repeated cross-sectional data from the Swedish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey were used. Psychosomatic complaints were measured using the screening instrument Health Behaviour in School-aged Children symptom checklist. Histograms, bar charts and quantile regression models were used for the analysis.Results and conclusions: With regard to the first implication, the results showed that the distribution of complaints was not bimodal and that there were no clusters of respondents. This suggests that binary categorisations of students can be reductive and conceal important variations across students. With regard to the second implication, the results showed that the increase in complaints was greatest among students who report frequent and co-occurring complaints. This suggests that reports of increasing complaints in adolescents cannot be explained as being primarily due to a greater inclination to report trivial complaints. It is concluded that any conflation of trivial and more severe complaints in surveys of psychosomatic complaints is not reflected in population-based estimates.
|
|
| 2. |
- Ragnarsson, Susanne, et al.
(author)
-
Perceived problems with academic achievement in school-aged children with recurrent pain - a longitudinal study
- 2021
-
In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. - : Sage Publications. - 1403-4948 .- 1651-1905. ; 49:5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aims: The overall aim was to explore the relationship between recurrent pain and perceived problems with academic achievement among boys and girls in middle and late elementary school.Methods: This 3-year follow-up study was based on data from the Study of Health in School-aged Children from Umeå (Sweden) and included children attending grade 6 in years 2003 and 2006, and a follow-up 3 years later in grade 9 (n = 1524, participation rate 90%).Results: Recurrent pain (head, stomach or back) at least doubled the odds of concurrent- and subsequent perceived problems with academic achievement. This applied for pain on a monthly and weekly basis, from single and multiple sites, and from each of the three studied pain sites. The odds increased with increasing pain frequency and number of pain sites. Problems with sleep, concentration or school absenteeism did not explain the association.Conclusions: Recurrent pain seems to be a potential predictor of perceived problems with academic achievement for school-aged children. This emphasises the importance of early identification and prevention of recurrent pain problems.
|
|
