Abstract

The purposes of this study were to investigate factors related to the somatizing symptom of elderly dwelling in a city and to explore the influence of disease, anger trait and anger expression on the elders' somatizing symptom. This study was a descriptive survey design using convenience sampling. Over 65-year-old elders (N=208), who agreed to participate in this study completed a self-report Questionnaire from April, 2010 to May, 2010. The collected data was analyzed with SPSS 17.0 program, which was used for frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression. Major findings of this study were as follows 1) Average number of disease as physical health was 1.62±1.36. Mean of anger trait was 18.71±5.95. Out of anger expression, average score of anger-in was 16.74±4.44, anger-out score was 15.51±4.90 and anger-control score was 20.21±5.22. Mean of somatizing symptom score was 7.38±4.84. 2) A large number of disease (r=.20, p＜.001), higher anger trait (r=.40, p＜.001), anger-in (r=.32, p＜.001), anger-out (r=.31, p＜.001) score and lower anger-control (r=−.14, p=.04) score were significantly related to more severe somatizing symptoms. 3) Significant factors influencing somatizing symptoms for eldely were the number of disease, anger trait and anger-in. The finding of this study gives useful information for understanding somatizing symptoms of elderly. Then, it is need to develop somatizing symptoms management by caring anger trait and anger expression with physical health all together. (Korean J Str Res 2011;19:343∼350)

• Keywords: Elderly, Somatizing symptom, Anger trait, Anger expression;