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A new questionnaire to identify bodily distress in primary care: the 'BDS checklist
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Functional symptoms and disorders are common in primary care. Bodily distress syndrome (BDS) is a newly proposed clinical diagnosis for functional disorders. The BDS diagnosis is based on empirical research, and the symptoms stated in the BDS criteria have been translated into a self-report questionnaire called the BDS checklist. The aim of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the checklist and to test the construct of BDS. METHOD: The 30-item BDS checklist was completed by 2480 adult primary care patients in a cross-sectional study on contact and disease patterns in Danish general practice. We performed (internal) validation analyses of the collected checklist data. We also performed factor and latent class analyses to identify both BDS symptom groups and BDS patient groups. RESULTS: Internal validation analyses revealed acceptable and usable psychometric properties of the BDS checklist. The factor analyses identified the four distinct determining factors for BDS: cardiopulmonary, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal and general symptoms. Results from factor and multi-trait analyses suggested a shortening of the BDS checklist (from 30 to 25 items). The latent class analyses resulted in three severity levels (no, moderate and severe BDS); the best fit index was found for a threshold of ≥4 symptoms in a symptom group. CONCLUSION: The results provide empirical support for the previously described construct of BDS with four symptom groups and three patient groups. The BDS checklist is a self-report instrument that may be used for case finding in both clinical practice and in research.
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“The outcomes of interest were fatigue, neurological, and cognitive symptoms, which were collected at each follow-up, based on the 25-item Bodily Distress Syndrome checklist [14].”
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Exploring illness perception classes in the general population: a latent class analysis †
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Metadata
- Authors
- Budtz-Lilly, A., Fink, P., Ørnbøl, E., Vestergaard, M., Moth, G., Christensen, K. S., & Rosendal, M.
- Affiliations
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Aarhus University Hospital (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Budtz-Lilly, Anna
- Venue
- Journal of Psychosomatic Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-06
- Volume
- 78
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 536-545
- ISSN
- 0022-3999 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2086815936
- Cited by
- 129
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 4
- FWCI
- 6.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- pure.au.dk
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Psychosomatic Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Health Research Fund of the Central Denmark Region (1-5-72-4-09)
- Committee for Quality Improvement and Continuing Medical Education in the Central Denmark Region (1-30-72-270-08)
- Lundbeck Foundation (R155-2012-11280)
- TrygFonden (FL-48)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Keywords
- bodily distress syndrome, functional symptoms, functional disorders, psychometric validation, questionnaire development, symptom groups, case finding, primary care patients, general practice, symptom severity classification, cardiopulmonary symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms, musculoskeletal symptoms
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Cardiovascular System, Cross-Sectional Studies, Denmark, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Musculoskeletal System, Primary Health Care, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Respiratory System, Syndrome, Reproducibility of Results, Gastrointestinal Tract, Checklist, General Practice
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