Gender differences in physical symptoms and illness behavior - A health diary study

Recent studies on symptom perception have highlighted the role of psycholog ical factors, such as mood states and external involvement, in physical sym ptom reporting. To date, the consistently found higher physical symptom rep orts in women have not been studied from this perspective. The present stud y aimed to investigate the psychological determinants of gender differences in physical symptoms and illness behavior on a daily basis. During four adjacent weeks, a healthy primary care sample of 92 women and 6 1 men kept health diaries, containing scales for physical symptoms, illness behavior, external information and positive and negative mood. The daily health records showed the typical gender difference in physical s ymptoms, but not in illness behavior. Negative mood was found to be the str ongest predictor of physical symptoms. Physical symptoms in turn were the s trongest predictor of illness behavior. The modest gender difference in phy sical symptoms disappeared after controlling for positive and negative mood . Thus, mood states seem to mediate gender differences in symptom reporting . (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.