The Subjective Health Complaints Inventory: A useful instrument to identify various aspects of health and ability to cope in older people?

Abstract

Aims: The aims were to investigate the factor structure of the Subjective Health Complaints Inventory (SHC) in a population of 75 years and above and to identify whether somatic, psychosocial, and coping factors were associated with the SHC factors. Methods: Data from 242 elderly persons were analyzed. The measures were: the SHC Inventory, Sense of Coherence, Social Provision Scale, Self-Rated Health, General Health Questionnaire, Clinical Dementia Rating, Reported Illness, Barthel ADL Index, sex, age, and education. Results: The factor analysis resulted in four subgroups: musculoskeletal pain (15% of variance), gastrointestinal problems (12% of variance), respiratory/allergy complaints (11% of variance), and pseudoneurology (11% of variance). The occurrence of complaints was 76% for musculoskeletal complaints, 51% for gastrointestinal complaints, 30% for flu, 43% for allergy, and 93% for pseudoneurology. Self-rated health and reported illness were significantly associated with musculoskeletal complaints (15% of variance), impairment in activities of daily living (ADL) with gastrointestinal complaints (3% of variance), and finally sense of coherence, self-rated health, and psychological distress were associated with pseudoneurology (32% of variance). No variables were associated with respiratory/allergy complaints. Conclusions: This study supports the stability of the SHC’s factor structure. The low occurrence of health complaints could possibly be due to survival effects, or that old people to a greater extent than younger people compare themselves with aged peers. The subscales focusing on somatic symptoms were explained by reported illnesses and functional impairments to a limited degree only. The pseudoneurology subscale score was associated with psychological measures, particularly ability to cope.