Analysis of Psychosomatic Disorders According to Age and Sex in a Rural Area: A Population-Based Study

Abstract

Psychosomatic disorders can develop unevenly depending on certain health determinants; therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of psychosomatic disorders and the differences by age and sex in a rural area. We conducted an observational descriptive retrospective population study to determine the prevalence of 201 diagnoses of psychosomatic nature grouped into 25 diagnostic categories by sex and age groups. A total of 33,680 participants with a diagnosis of psychosomatic disorder were identified (64.6% women, 35.4% men). We found statistically significant differences based on sex in 13 of the 25 diagnostic categories previously defined. When we analyzed these categories by age, we found that women showed a higher probability, between 1.23 and 10.85 times, of suffering from most of these health issues. We also observed that the older the age group, the most often they had a diagnosis. Notably, more women seem to suffer from psychosomatic disorders when compared to men in the same situation. In most of these disorders, being of the female sex was a risk factor, and the older the participants, the greater the probability of developing a disorder.