Relationship of psychosocial factors to bodily and psychological complaints in a population in Western Norway.

A sample of 915 men and women, representative of the population aged 35-49 in five municipalities in Western Norway, responded to a psychosocial questionnaire, the response rate being 78.8%. The questionnaire covered wide aspects of the life situation of the individuals as well as items on psychological and bodily complaints. Women had more complaints than men. By use of multiple regression, indexes of psychological and somatic complaints were predicted for men and women from psychosocial variables. For psychological complaints up to 37% of the variance was explained in women, and 45% in men. For bodily complaints the corresponding figures were 50 and 45%, respectively. In many cases an important intervening effect of the social network was demonstrated.