Covariation of physical and mental symptoms across illnesses: Results of a factor analytic study

OBJECTIVE: Chronic illnesses are associated with reports of symptoms, problems, and dysfunction along multiple dimensions. To determine if the dimensionality is disease-specific and whether physical and emotional symptoms are concomitant and inseparable aspects of the illness experience, we present a factor analysis of symptom and problem reports from five different chronic conditions. METHOD: People with five different conditions participated in this study: multiple sclerosis (MS) (n = 263), non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (n = 420), nonhead nonneck injury trauma (n = 852), and a group of terminal patients comprised of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) (n = 99) and cancer (n = 74) patients. Participants were asked to complete the Quality of Well-Being Scale (QWB) and symptom items from the QWB were factor analyzed. RESULTS: Both within each condition and across conditions, two factors accounted for the majority of the explained variance and could be described as an Observable Limitations factor and a Subjective Symptoms factor. CONCLUSIONS: Our factor analyses suggest that physical and emotional symptoms covary and are common to different types of illness.