OBJECTIVES Distressing physical symptoms (e.g., back pain, nausea), many of which lack medical explanation, are a common cause for medical help seeking. However, racial/ethnic and educational differences may complicate identification and explanation of such symptoms, potentially contributing to clinician misdiagnosis and patient dissatisfaction. To better understand this issue, we examined racial/ethnic differences in general physical symptoms (GPS) and, more specifically, medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) and whether differences varied by race/ethnicity and educational attainment. METHOD A sample of 4,864 Latino, Asian, and non-Latino White community respondents (54% female; average age of 41 years) self-reported their GPS. Two experts then rated whether endorsed symptoms were likely to have a medical basis. We assessed the associations of GPS and MUPS with race/ethnicity, age, gender, educational attainment, chronic physical conditions, and past-year psychiatric diagnoses. RESULTS Asian respondents reported significantly fewer GPS than non-Latino Whites, and both Asian and Latino respondents endorsed significantly fewer MUPS than non-Latino Whites. When nativity and language were each included as covariates, racial/ethnic differences in GPS count were no longer observed; however, observed differences in MUPS count remained. Educational attainment did not demonstrate a significant relationship with either GPS or MUPS. Although comorbid mental health diagnoses were significantly related to both GPS and MUPS, age, gender, and comorbid physical conditions were the only significant predictors of GPS. CONCLUSIONS Results from this study question existing stereotypical views of racial/ethnic differences in somatization and suggest that educational attainment does not significantly contribute to reported physical symptoms-with or without medical explanation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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一般身体症状和医学上无法解释的身体症状的种族/民族差异：调查教育的作用。

目标 令人痛苦的身体症状（例如，背痛、恶心），其中许多缺乏医学解释，是寻求医疗帮助的常见原因。然而，种族/民族和教育差异可能会使此类症状的识别和解释复杂化，从而可能导致临床医生误诊和患者不满。为了更好地理解这个问题，我们检查了一般身体症状 (GPS) 的种族/民族差异，更具体地说，是医学上无法解释的身体症状 (MUPS)，以及差异是否因种族/民族和教育程度而异。方法 4,864 名拉丁裔、亚裔和非拉丁裔白人社区受访者（54% 为女性；平均年龄为 41 岁）的样本自我报告了他们的 GPS。两名专家随后对认可的症状是否可能有医学基础进行了评估。我们评估了 GPS 和 MUPS 与种族/民族、年龄、性别、教育程度、慢性身体状况和过去一年的精神病诊断的关联。结果 亚裔受访者报告的 GPS 明显少于非拉丁裔白人，而且亚裔和拉丁裔受访者支持的 MUPS 都比非拉丁裔白人少得多。当出生和语言都作为协变量包括在内时，不再观察到 GPS 计数中的种族/民族差异；然而，观察到的 MUPS 计数差异仍然存在。教育程度与 GPS 或 MUPS 均未表现出显着关系。尽管共病心理健康诊断与 GPS 和 MUPS 均显着相关，但年龄、性别和共病身体状况是 GPS 的唯一重要预测因素。结论 这项研究的结果质疑了现有的关于躯体化的种族/民族差异的刻板印象，并表明教育程度对报告的身体症状没有显着影响——无论是否有医学解释。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。