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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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What makes old people perceive symptoms of illness?
— the impact of psychological and social factors | | Author(s) | M Rennemark, B Hagberg |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 3, no 1, February 1999 |
| Pages | pp 79-87 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Ill health ; Symptoms ; Mental health [elderly] ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Measurement ; Sweden. |
| Annotation | Feeling ill is by definition a subjective experience, and people differ in their inclination to perceive and report feelings of illness. Three factors were assumed to affect the way symptoms of illness are perceived and reported: sense of coherence (SOC), social network, and degree of depression. 58 Swedish people aged 71 reported symptoms according to a symptom checklist. They also reported social network structures or functions and degrees of depression according to standardised questionnaires. SOC showed to be strongest bivariately correlated to the number of reported symptoms, followed by degree of depression and social network. Multiple regression analyses showed that SOC alone was related to symptoms of depression and tension. SOC in combination with social network was also related to the total symptom report; and depressive mood in combination with social network was related to symptoms from muscles and skeleton. The main finding is the strong connection between SOC and the perception and reporting of symptoms of illness. The results support the idea that SOC serves as a buffer against the experience of stress, but that it also interacts with social context variables to define sickness behaviour. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990607014 A |
| Classmark | CH: CT: D: F: 3R: 76P |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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