Myles, Amy2024-06-142024-06-142022https://hdl.handle.net/2440/141288This item is only available electronically.Somatic symptoms are chronic physical complaints, such as headaches and joint pain. Patients presenting with them have repeat appointments, but usually remain undiagnosed. Women have been found to have a higher burden of somatic symptoms. To remedy a lack of longitudinal research on a comprehensive set of psychosocial and physiological predictors of somatic symptoms in women, we used data from two waves (Wave 5 and 6) of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. The waves were three years apart (conducted in 2017 and 2019), and were completed by 8,261 women, who were representative of the Australian general population. Participants answered questions about eight relevant physiological factors and seven relevant psychosocial factors. Linear regression with somatic symptom burden as the outcome was conducted to (a) compare the standardised coefficients across all predictors, and (b) the amount of variance contributed by psychosocial predictors combined and physiological predictors combined. Missing data on predictors was multiply imputed. The five strongest predictors were distress (strength of depression and anxiety symptoms), the presence of at least one physiological condition, stress, being overweight, and having a sexual condition. Together, all the predictors accounted for 32.8% of variance, and, alone, psychosocial predictors accounted for more variance than physiological predictors: 29.7% vs. 11.5%. The results suggest that supports should be strengthened for health professionals to consider and investigate the psychosocial circumstances of patients presenting with common physical complaints. Key Words: somatic symptoms, somatisation, psychological wellbeing, physical wellbeing, longitudinal analysis, women's health.Honours; PsychologyThesis