Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/1480
Appears in Collections:Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Symptom experience and subsequent mortality: results from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 study
Author(s): Elliott, Alison M
Hannaford, Philip C
Smith, Blair H
Wyke, Sally
Hunt, Kate
Contact Email: sally.wyke@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: Mortality
Longevity
Issue Date: Dec-2006
Date Deposited: 28-Jul-2009
Citation: Elliott AM, Hannaford PC, Smith BH, Wyke S & Hunt K (2006) Symptom experience and subsequent mortality: results from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 study. BMC Health Services Research, 6 (1), p. 158. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/6/158; https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-6-158
Abstract: Background: Associations between symptom experience and mortality have rarely been investigated. One study has suggested that the number of symptoms people experience may be an important predictor of mortality. This novel and potentially important finding may have important implications but needs to be tested in other cohorts. Methods: 858 people aged around 58 years were interviewed by nurses in 1990/1 as part of the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study. They were asked about the presence of symptoms in the last month from a checklist of 33 symptoms. Measures of morbidity included symptom type (respiratory, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, mental health, neurological, systemic) and symptom summary measures looking at the number and impact of symptoms (total number; number participants tended to have; number participants did not tend to have; number which restricted usual activities; number which led to GP consultation). Hazard ratios for thirteen-year all-cause mortality were calculated for symptom types, symptom summary measures, and self-assessed health with and without adjustment. Results: On unadjusted analysis, and after adjusting for gender, socio-economic status and smoking, mortality was elevated in individuals reporting respiratory, systemic and mental health symptoms. After additional adjustment for chronic conditions and self-assessed health, only the association between mental health symptoms and mortality remained significant. On unadjusted analysis, and after adjusting for gender, socio-economic status and smoking, mortality was elevated in individuals with many (≥ 6) symptoms in four of the symptom summary measures examined. These relationships were no longer significant after additional adjustment for chronic conditions and self-assessed health. A clear trend of increasing mortality as self-assessed health became poorer was observed. This pattern remained statistically significant after adjustment for gender, socio-economic status, smoking, chronic conditions and the total number of symptoms experienced. Conclusion: Symptoms often thought of as minor may have important consequences later in life especially for those reporting mental health-related symptoms or those experiencing many symptoms. In this study however, self-assessed health appeared to be a better predictor of mortality than the type or number of symptoms experienced, even when the tendency to have and impact of the symptoms were taken into account.
URL: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/6/158
DOI Link: 10.1186/1472-6963-6-158
Rights: Published in BMC Health Services Research by BioMed Central Ltd.; © 2006 Elliott et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.; Publisher statement: "This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited".
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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