[Symptom validation in patients with migration background in psychosomatic medicine]. / Beschwerdenvalidierung bei Rehabilitanden mit Migrationshintergrund in der Psychosomatik.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate differences in the occurrence of symptom over-reporting in insurants with and without migration background as well as to determine factors that predict the occurrence of symptom over-reporting. METHODS: A survey-based screening of validating complaints including Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS), L-scale (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - MMPI-2), Health-49 and Predictive validity of a brief scale measuring the subjective prognosis of gainful employment (SPE-scale) was carried out with 457 German insurants and 138 insurants with migration background previous to their inpatient rehabilitation treatment. RESULTS: Symptom over-reporting measured by the SIMS could be observed in 33% of the German insurants and 50% of the insurants with migration background. Highest predictive power relative to symptom over-reporting was achieved by Health-49-score followed by social class and sex. CONCLUSIONS: Percentage of symptom over-reporting is higher in insurants with migration background than in German insurants, but taking into account more factors, differences in German and Non-German insurants can be largely explained by differences in social class and gender distribution. Studies applying multi-method symptom validation are required to clarify the causes of high prevalence of sympom over-reporting in German and Non-German insurants.