Somatic symptoms in the German general population from 1975 to 2013
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Beutel, Manfred E.
Klein, Eva M.
Henning, Michaela
Werner, Antonia M.
Burghardt, Juliane
Tibubos, Ana Nanette
Schmutzer, Gabriele
Brähler, Elmar
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Abstract
The study determines how burden and patterns of somatic symptom reporting developed over almost
four decades in the general German population. Additionally, we studied how socio-demographic
factors affected the degree of somatic symptoms. Population-based samples representative for West
Germany between 18 and 60 years of age were analyzed comparing three cross-sectional samples of
1975 (N = 1601), 1994 (N = 1416), and 2013 (N = 1290) by conducting a three-way analysis of variance
(sex, age, survey). The prevalence rates for somatic symptoms in men and women were lower in the
more recent surveys; this affected women most strongly. Exhaustion and musculoskeletal complaints
remained leading symptoms (affecting 25%, resp. 11% of the men and 30%, resp. 19% of the women).
There was a slight increase in women’s prevalence of exhaustion from 1994 (15%) to 2013 (19%). As
determined by stepwise multiple regression, somatic symptoms were consistently associated with
female sex and higher age. In the 2013 survey, education became an additional negative predictor of
somatic symptom load, while the impact of age and sex on somatic symptoms reporting decreased.
Somatic symptoms remain a major burden in the general population. Findings are interpreted with
regard to improved living and health care conditions, different cohort experiences, and more public
health information.
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Scientific reports, 10, Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, London, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58602-6