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Psychosocial determinants of headache, abdominal pain, and sleep problems in a community sample of Finnish adolescents

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Abstract

The aims of this study were to examine the prevalence, co-occurrence, and psychosocial determinants of self-perceived headache, abdominal pain, and sleep problems among adolescents. The adolescents from two cities in Finland (n = 2,215, 90.9% of the target population) attending 7th and 9th grade (age range 13–18 years) participated in the cross-sectional survey inquiring about frequency of headache, abdominal pain, sleep problems, and psychosocial difficulties. The 6-month prevalence of weekly headache was 13%, abdominal pain 6%, and sleep problems 27%. All three symptoms were strongly associated with each other. Of the adolescents suffering from one symptom, 32% reported one co-occurring symptom and 17% two co-occurring symptoms. In the multivariate analysis, female gender, experience of psychological difficulties, emotional symptoms, smoking, victimization, and feeling not cared about by teachers were independently associated with all the individual symptoms, as well as an increasing number of symptoms. Sleep problems were associated with older age and peer and alcohol problems. Abdominal pain was associated with conduct problems, and both headache and abdominal pain were linked with immigration background. An increasing number of symptoms was associated with older age, having a chronic illness, and conduct and alcohol problems. Adolescents’ headache, abdominal pain and sleep problems were common and often co-occurred. An increasing frequency of each symptom and number of symptoms were associated with psychosocial factors in a similar way. Screening for psychiatric symptoms, substance use, victimization and difficulties with teachers should be included in the assessment of adolescents who suffer from recurrent headache, abdominal pain or sleep problems.

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Abbreviations

CI:

Confidence interval

COR:

Cumulative odds ratio

OR:

Odds ratio

SDQ:

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

vs:

Versus

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by grants from the Finnish Pediatric Research Foundation and the Finnish–Swedish Medical Association. We thank Auli Partanen, MSc for assistance in statistical analyses and Jarna Lindroos, BA, for assistance in data collection and entry, as well as technical considerations. We also thank Ms Anniina Helenius, Ms Saana Sourander and Ms Vilja Salo for assistance in data entry, as well as Juhani Ikonen, MD, for the drawing of figures.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Turku, Itäinen Pitkäkatu 1/Varia, 20014, Turun Yliopisto, Finland

    Terhi Luntamo, Andre Sourander & Maria Rihko

  2. Child and Adolescent Health Care Unit, Turku City Hospital, Itäinen Pitkäkatu 30, 20700, Turku, Finland

    Minna Aromaa

  3. Department of Public Health, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Minna Aromaa

  4. Department of Biostatistics, University of Turku, Lemminkäisenkatu 1, 20014, Turun Yliopisto, Finland

    Hans Helenius

  5. Department of Child Psychiatry, Helsinki University Hospital, Aurora Hospital A20, PL 348, 00029 HUS, Helsinki, Finland

    Merja Koskelainen

  6. IWK Health Centre, 5850/5980 University Avenue, P.O. Box 9700, Halifax, NS, B3K 6R8, Canada

    Patrick J. McGrath

  7. Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Patrick J. McGrath

  8. Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Patrick J. McGrath

  9. Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Patrick J. McGrath

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  1. Terhi Luntamo
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  2. Andre Sourander
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  3. Maria Rihko
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  4. Minna Aromaa
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  5. Hans Helenius
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  6. Merja Koskelainen
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  7. Patrick J. McGrath
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Correspondence to Terhi Luntamo.

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Luntamo, T., Sourander, A., Rihko, M. et al. Psychosocial determinants of headache, abdominal pain, and sleep problems in a community sample of Finnish adolescents. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 21, 301–313 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-012-0261-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-012-0261-1

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