Somatization among persons with Turkish origin: Results of the pretest of the German National Cohort Study

- Women and first generation immigrants are vulnerable for somatization.
- Physical illnesses and language proficiency are predictors of somatization.
- Persons of Turkish origin show higher degrees of somatization compared to Germans.

ObjectiveDespite the emerging need to examine mental health of immigrants, there are no investigations designed to analyze representative samples in Germany. The aim of the present study was to explore the severity of somatic symptoms/somatization among a sample of considerable size consisting of persons with Turkish origin. We studied whether somatization was associated with sociodemographic and migration-related characteristics.MethodsThis examination was part of a pretest for a large national epidemiological cohort study in Germany. We applied the somatization (PHQ-15) and the depression module (PHQ-9) from the Patient Health Questionnaire in a subsample of 335 Turkish immigrants. We analyzed the distribution of the sum score. Differences in degree of somatization in relation to relevant socio-demographic (gender) and migrant-related characteristics (generation of immigration) were tested with analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), controlling for age. A multiple linear regression analysis was also conducted.ResultsWomen had significantly higher age-adjusted mean scores than men (M = 10.4, SD = 6.3 vs. M = 8.1, SD = 6.3; F = 10.467, p = 0.001), a significant effect of age was also found (F = 4.853, p = 0.028). First generation immigrants had a higher age-adjusted mean number of symptoms in relation to the second generation immigrants (M = 10.0, SD = 6.5 vs. M = 7.4, SD = 7.0; F = 6.042, p = 0.014), the effect of age was not significant (F = 0.466, p = 0.495). Multiple regression analysis revealed that lower severity of somatization was associated with lower numbers of diagnosed physical illnesses (β = 0.271, p < 0.001) and better language proficiency (β = 0.197, p = 0.003, explained variance: 15.6%).ConclusionsThe degree of somatization among Turkish immigrants in Germany is associated with gender and generation of immigration.