Department of Family Medicine, Cheng Ching Hospital, 3 Chung-Kang RD, Taichung 407, Taiwan.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2010 Jun 10;10:160. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-10-160.
Studies of outpatient department patients indicate that somatic discomforts such as headache, neck pain, chest pain, low back pain, and gastrointestinal discomfort are commonly found in patients with multiple complaints. Clustering of some symptoms has been found in common somatic symptom analyses. Because of the complexity involved in the diagnosis of patients with multiple complaints, the aim of this study is to identify and classify patterns of somatic symptoms in individuals assessed during a health examination.
A total of 683 patients (437 males, 246 females) received a one-day physical examination and completed a structured survey during the period from May 2007 to April 2008. A physical symptoms interview was conducted, and medical and demographic data was collected.
Based on the factor analysis, 4 clusters of symptoms were identified: 1) pain symptoms, 2) cold symptoms, 3) cardiopulmonary symptoms, and 4) gastrointestinal symptoms. The distribution of symptoms differed between males and females. After varimax rotation of factor patterns, 4 extracted factors emerged. In males, the factors were 1) pain symptoms, 2) cold symptoms, 3) cardiopulmonary symptoms, and 4) gastrointestinal symptoms. In females, the factors were 1) pain symptoms, 2) cold symptoms, 3) cardiopulmonary symptoms, and 4) head and gastrointestinal symptoms.
Four clusters of somatic symptoms emerged for both males and females; however, the predominant symptoms were different in males and females. Females displayed more head-related symptoms than males. Patients should be thoroughly interviewed about additional symptoms within the same cluster after the recognition of a single somatic complaint.
门诊患者研究表明，头痛、颈痛、胸痛、腰痛和胃肠道不适等躯体不适在有多种主诉的患者中很常见。常见躯体症状分析中发现了一些症状的聚类。由于对有多种主诉的患者的诊断较为复杂，本研究旨在识别和分类个体体检评估中躯体症状的模式。
共有 683 名患者（437 名男性，246 名女性）接受了为期一天的体检，并在 2007 年 5 月至 2008 年 4 月期间完成了一项结构化调查。进行了躯体症状访谈，并收集了医疗和人口统计学数据。
基于因子分析，确定了 4 个症状群：1）疼痛症状，2）冷症状，3）心肺症状，和 4）胃肠道症状。症状分布在男性和女性之间存在差异。因子模式经 varimax 旋转后，出现 4 个提取因子。在男性中，这些因子是 1）疼痛症状，2）冷症状，3）心肺症状，和 4）胃肠道症状。在女性中，这些因子是 1）疼痛症状，2）冷症状，3）心肺症状，和 4）头和胃肠道症状。
男性和女性均出现 4 个躯体症状群；然而，男性和女性的主要症状不同。女性表现出更多与头相关的症状。在识别单一躯体主诉后，应彻底询问患者同一群内的其他症状。
