Racial/ethnic differences in adolescents' physical symptoms

J Pediatr Nurs. 2005 Jun;20(3):153-62. doi: 10.1016/j.pedn.2005.01.003.

Abstract

This study was conducted to establish race/ethnic-specific prevalence for 10 physical symptoms in American youths and to examine the extent to which socioeconomic status and depressive symptoms explained racial differences in those symptoms. This descriptive study was based on a cross-sectional analysis of survey data from Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health including a school-based sample of over 20,000 adolescents in Grades 7 through 12. Self-reported physical symptoms during the past 12 months were examined. White youths reported the highest frequency of headaches, musculoskeletal pain, and dizziness; feeling hot, chest pain, cold sweats, and urinary symptoms were more common in Black youths. The three symptoms reported by Whites remained significant after controlling for family income and depressive symptoms, whereas racial differences in the four symptoms prominent in Blacks were accounted for by family income and depressive symptoms. Findings highlight racial differences in symptom types and in psychosocial factors contributing to physical symptoms in adolescents and warn against health-care providers' stereotyping associations between physical symptoms and socioeconomic status.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Black or African American / ethnology
  • Black or African American / genetics
  • Black or African American / statistics & numerical data*
  • Chest Pain / ethnology
  • Cough / ethnology
  • Cross-Cultural Comparison
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Depression / ethnology
  • Dizziness / ethnology
  • Fatigue / ethnology
  • Female
  • Headache / ethnology
  • Health Status*
  • Health Surveys
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Models, Statistical
  • Pain / ethnology
  • Pharyngitis / ethnology
  • Prevalence
  • Recurrence
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • United States / epidemiology
  • Urination Disorders / ethnology
  • White People / ethnology
  • White People / genetics
  • White People / statistics & numerical data*