Somatosensory amplification as a possible source of subjective symptoms behind modern health worries

Abstract

The theoretically hypothesized connection between modern health worries (MHWs) and somatosensory amplification (SSA), as well as the factor structure of the Hungarian version of the MHW scale were investigated in a cross-sectional questionnaire study. A total of 163 university students (mean age = 21.3± 2.70 yrs; 44.2% male) and 145 patients (mean age = 49.4±17.51 yrs; 31.7% male) visiting their general practitioners (GPs) completed questionnaires assessing MHWs, SSA, subjective somatic symptoms (PHQ-15), and trait anxiety (STAI-T). The previously described four-factor structure of the MHW scale was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In the linear regression analysis, participants' age and SSA scores were positively related to MHWs even after controlling for gender, anxiety, and subjective somatic symptom scores. The conclusions are that: MHWs are indicators of cognitive, behavioral and social level of sensitization for health-related concerns; SSA can provide the somatic background process for generation and/or misattribution of subjective somatic symptoms; better understanding of the cognitive-emotional background of MHWs could help to determine possible interventions.

Dispositional aspects of body focus and idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI‐EMF)

“…The majority of the intercorrelations found among the five assessed constructs (MHWs, negative affect, somatic absorption, health anxiety, and somatosensory amplification) of the current study are in accordance with previous findings. Medium level correlations between SSA and MHWs were reported in several studies (Köteles, Bárány, Varsányi & Bárdos, ; Köteles & Simor, ; Köteles et al ., ), and the connections between NA and SSA (Köteles et al ., ; Köteles & Doering, ; Köteles et al ., ), and SHAI and NA have also been described (Köteles et al ., ). Direction and strength (r = 0.23–0.28) of correlations between SSA and SA were also in accordance with previous findings (Köteles et al ., ; Köteles & Doering, ), however, they did not reach the significant level in the current samples.…”

“…This is a 25‐item scale assessing people's concerns about the possibly harmful effects of modern technologies on a five‐point Likert scale from 1 (“no concern”) to 5 (“extreme concern”). In the present study, only the three‐item Radiation subscale (assessing concerns about radiation from cell phones, radio or cell phone towers, and high tension power lines) of the Hungarian version of the MHW scale (Köteles, Szemerszky, Freyler & Bárdos, ) was used. Its internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient) was 0.86 and 0.87 for the IEI‐EHS and control group, respectively.…”

The relationship of modern health worries to depression, symptom reporting and quality of life in a general population survey

“…Higher levels of modern health worries have been found to be associated with the most common somatization disorder symptoms and somatosensory amplification [6] as well as in individuals with idiopathic environmental intolerance such as multiple chemical sensitivity and electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndromes [7]. Individuals with higher levels of modern health worries consume more alternative health care products [8,9] and organic food [9,10], but use less prescription medication, perhaps because they are wary of its harmful effects [4].In this study we investigate modern health worries in a general population sample.…”

Modern health worries

“…Az eredetileg leírt faktorstruktúrát holland, német és magyar mintán végzett vizsgálatok is alátámasztották (Bailer, Witthöft, & Rist, 2008a;Kaptein és mtsai, 2005;Köteles, Szemerszky, Freyler, & Bárdos, 2011;Muthny & Schulze Willbrenning, 2010). Úgy tûnik, hogy a modernitás észlelt veszélyei nagyon hasonlóan szervezôdnek a modern társadalmakban élô emberek elméjében.…”