Psychosomatic symptoms questionnaire (PSQ-39): a psychometric study among general population of Iranian adults

Heidari, Zahra; Feizi, Awat; Rezaei, Sara; Roohafza, Hamidreza; Adibi, Peyman

doi:10.1186/s12888-021-03278-z

BMC Psychiatry

Table 3 Factor loadings and item-scale correlations of PSQ-39 items

From: Psychosomatic symptoms questionnaire (PSQ-39): a psychometric study among general population of Iranian adults

Psychosomatic symptoms	Extracted factors ^a
Psychosomatic symptoms	Cardiorespiratory	Musculoskeletal	Psychological	Gastrointestinal	General	Body balance	Globus	Item-scale correlations^**
Tightness around the chest	*0.79*	0.12	0.18	0.07	−0.02	0.14	0.14	0.74
Pounding heart	*0.76*	0.08	0.18	0.09	0.16	0.16	0.10	0.74
Irregular heart beat	*0.75*	0.08	0.20	0.08	0.14	0.17	0.12	0.74
Painful stings in the heart area	*0.72*	0.13	0.16	0.13	0.09	0.05	0.26	0.72
Shortness of breath	*0.70*	0.16	0.15	0.10	0.26	0.16	0.12	0.74
Chest pain	*0.70*	0.21	0.20	0.14	−0.02	0.09	0.18	0.69
Inability to take a deep breath	*0.57*	0.23	0.08	0.08	0.37	0.12	0.12	0.60
Sudden fast or deep breathing	*0.56*	0.24	0.03	0.11	0.41	0.17	0.04	0.63
Pain in bones	0.24	*0.75*	0.19	0.09	0.22	0.10	0.04	0.78
Muscle pain	0.30	*0.73*	0.15	0.16	0.17	0.12	0.00	0.76
Back pain	0.07	*0.68*	0.16	0.20	0.16	0.10	0.14	0.67
Pain in neck	0.06	*0.67*	0.08	0.11	0.16	0.11	0.24	0.63
Feelings of muscle weakness	0.14	*0.64*	0.37	0.10	0.22	0.12	0.17	0.73
Stiffness of fingers	0.19	*0.58*	0.21	0.10	0.31	−0.01	0.14	0.64
Not feeling fit	0.31	0.24	*0.72*	0.17	0.07	0.14	0.06	0.75
Feeling tired	0.24	0.29	*0.68*	0.28	0.04	0.20	−0.04	0.72
Feeling exhausted	0.33	0.29	*0.66*	0.13	0.15	0.17	0.02	0.73
Feeling low on energy	0.23	0.27	*0.64*	0.31	0.11	0.17	−0.04	0.69
Difficulty concentrating	0.14	0.13	*0.62*	0.08	0.33	0.17	0.40	0.73
Unclear or foggy thoughts	0.18	0.13	*0.60*	0.10	0.34	0.15	0.38	0.73
Forgetfulness	0.14	0.19	*0.55*	0.09	0.34	0.11	0.39	0.67
Bowel cramps	0.15	0.13	0.15	*0.78*	0.06	0.05	0.17	0.68
Bloated stomach	0.15	0.19	0.18	*0.77*	0.19	0.08	0.06	0.68
Upset stomach	0.06	0.12	0.14	*0.77*	0.12	0.22	0.09	0.70
Abdominal pain	0.13	0.13	0.14	*0.71*	0.04	0.28	0.09	0.66
Hot or cold flashes	0.14	0.22	0.15	0.13	*0.72*	0.04	0.05	0.64
Excessive sweating	0.15	0.24	0.18	0.16	*0.70*	0.02	0.02	0.62
Trembling of hands	0.29	0.29	0.21	0.00	*0.48*	0.09	0.22	0.56
Tingling feeling in fingers, arms, or legs	0.12	0.42	0.18	0.08	*0.46*	0.07	0.09	0.55
Dry mouth	0.15	0.28	0.10	0.10	*0.43*	0.16	0.23	0.49
Dizziness	0.19	0.23	0.16	0.10	−0.05	*0.72*	0.08	0.64
Confusion or feelings of unreality	0.05	−0.02	0.32	−0.03	0.22	*0.63*	0.14	0.48
Nausea	0.22	0.12	0.00	0.28	0.03	*0.62*	0.02	0.52
Headache	0.11	0.37	0.13	0.16	−0.18	*0.53*	−0.03	0.42
Rustling sound in ears	0.12	0.03	0.06	0.16	0.19	*0.51*	0.03	0.40
Fainting	0.31	−0.11	0.22	0.09	0.10	*0.42*	0.26	0.40
Lump in throat	0.24	0.12	0.07	0.12	0.21	0.04	*0.74*	0.62
Having trouble swallowing	0.34	0.15	0.08	0.13	−0.07	0.01	*0.72*	0.54
Sore throat	0.15	0.19	0.10	0.11	0.12	0.17	*0.65*	0.51
Variance explained* (%)	13.1	10.1	9.8	7.6	7.6	6.7	6.4	–

^a Exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation; Factor loadings < 0.4 are not shown for simplicity; * Variance explained resulted from factor analysis; ** Pearson’s correlation coefficients between each item and its own domain (extracted factors) corrected for overlap;

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