Towards Psychosomatic Medicine: Psychometric Properties of the Polish Version of the Giessen Subjective Complaints List (GBB-8) and the Prevalence of Somatic Symptoms in a Polish Community Sample

Paweł Larionow, Karolina Mudło-Głagolska, Maciej Michalak

Abstract


The Giessen Subjective Complaints List (GBB-8) is an 8-item self-report measure of somatic symptoms. Originally developed in German and then validated in English, it was designed for measuring eight of the most frequently assessed somatic complaints in four categories (exhaustion, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, and cardiovascular complaints). This study aimed to validate a Polish version of the GBB-8 and to examine the prevalence of somatic complaints in a Polish community sample. Our sample consisted of 846 Polish adults (545 females, 281 males and 20 non-binary) aged 18–77 (M = 27.42, SD = 12.67). The study was conducted from February to September 2022. The GBB-8’s factor structure was verified with confirmatory factor analysis, whereas convergent and divergent validity were assessed via relationships with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Our results indicated strong factorial validity, conforming to the intended 4-factor model with a second-order factor. The GBB-8 subscales correlated in expected directions with markers of depression and anxiety symptoms. Moreover, the questionnaire showed good discriminant validity against these mental health symptoms. Internal consistency reliability was good for three subscales and the total score and it was satisfactory for the cardiovascular subscale. The test-retest reliability of the questionnaire was good. Overall, the Polish version of the GBB-8 has strong psychometric properties. We also examined the age, gender, and demographic differences. Specific age–gender relationships with somatic complaints were noted. We provided current group norms (sten scale) of somatic symptoms for females and males separately.


Keywords


psychosomatic medicine; prevalence of somatic complaints; validation; psychometric properties

Full Text:

PDF

References


Beutel, M.E., Klein, E.M., Henning, M., Werner, A.M., Burghardt, J., … Brähler, E. (2020). Somatic Symptoms in the German General Population from 1975 to 2013. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1595. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-58602-6

Bohman, H., Låftman, S.B., Cleland, N., Lundberg, M., Päären, A., Jonsson, U. (2018). Somatic Symptoms in Adolescence as a Predictor of Severe Mental Illness in Adulthood: A Long-Term Community-Based Follow-Up Study. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 12, 42. DOI: 10.1186/s13034-018-0245-0

Eatwell, J. (1997). Using Norms in the Interpretations of Test Results. In: H. Love, W. Whittaker (Eds.), Practice Issues for Clinical and Applied Psychologists in New Zealand (pp. 268–276). Wellington: The New Zealand Psychological Society.

Hu, L., Bentler, P.M. (1999). Cutoff Criteria for Fit Indexes in Covariance Structure Analysis: Conventional Criteria Versus New Alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. DOI: 10.1080/10705519909540118

Kliem, S., Lohmann, A., Klatt, T., Mößle, T., Rehbein, … Brähler, E. (2017). Brief Assessment of Subjective Health Complaints: Development, Validation and Population Norms of a Brief Form of the Giessen Subjective Complaints List (GBB-8). Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 95, 33–43. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2017.02.003

Koo, T.K., Li, M.Y. (2016). A Guideline of Selecting and Reporting Intraclass Correlation Coefficients for Reliability Research. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, 15(2), 155–163. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcm.2016.02.012

Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R.L., Williams, J.B., Löwe, B. (2009). An Ultra-Brief Screening Scale for Anxiety and Depression: The PHQ-4. Psychosomatics, 50(6), 613–621. DOI: 10.1176/appi.psy.50.6.613

Larionow, P. (2022). Wybrane problemy badań w medycynie psychosomatycznej i sposoby na ich rozwiązania: przestrzeń dla nowych osiągnięć. PsyArXiv. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/fbaxc

Larionow, P., Mudło-Głagolska, K. (2022). The Patient Health Questionnaire-4: The Factor Structure, Invariance Measurement, and the Latent Profile Analysis of Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in a Polish General Community Sample. ResearchSquare. DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2050825/v1

Löwe, B., Wahl, I., Rose, M., Spitzer, C., Glaesmer, H., … Brähler, E. (2010). A 4-Item Measure of Depression and Anxiety: Validation and Standardization of the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) in the General Population. Journal of Affective Disorders, 122(1–2), 86–95. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2009.06.019

Petrowski, K., Zenger, M., Schmalbach, B., Bastianon, C.D., Strauss, B. (2022). Psychometric Properties and Validation of the English Version Giessen Subjective Complaints List (GBB-8). BMC Psychology, 10(1). DOI: 10.1186/s40359-022-00741-8

Pituch, K.A., Stevens, P. (2016). Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences. New York: Routledge.

Reisner, S.L., Katz-Wise, S.L., Gordon, A.R., Corliss, H.L., Austin, S.B. (2016). Social Epidemiology of Depression and Anxiety by Gender Identity. Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(2), 203–208. DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.04.006

Simms, L.J., Prisciandaro, J.J., Krueger, R.F., Goldberg, D.P. (2012). The Structure of Depression, Anxiety and Somatic Symptoms in Primary Care. Psychological Medicine, 42(1), 15–28. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291711000985




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/j.2022.35.4.117-138
Date of publication: 2023-02-27 15:39:06
Date of submission: 2022-10-19 10:51:20


Statistics


Total abstract view - 399
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 225

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2023

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.