ArticleScandinavian journal of primary health care2023
Sex and gender differences in primary care help-seeking for common somatic symptoms: a longitudinal study.
Article in Scandinavian journal of primary health care, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Factors associated with receiving a Functional Disorder diagnostic label: A systematic review.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- "They knew how to take care of people": a qualitative study on older adults with chronic low back pain perspectives of an exercise plus education program.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2025Trial
- Pre-pandemic care-seeking patterns and subsequent diagnoses of post-COVID condition, post viral fatigue syndrome, and exhaustion disorder: a registry-based cohort study of 208,050 Swedish women.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- The course and management of symptom diagnoses in general practice.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Exploring perceived access to and previous experiences with general practice and associations with health literacy in the Danish population.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Frequent attenders in primary health care in Finland: use of primary care services and patient characteristics.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Delay and Clinical Follow-Up Across Oral Lichen Planus Phenotypes: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Body Mass Index, Waist Circumference, Readmission, and Healthcare Costs After Influenza- or Pneumonia-Related Hospitalization: A Sex-Stratified Nationwide Cohort Study in Korea.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Frequency and Timing of Depression and Anxiety Diagnoses Following Cancer Diagnosis: A Multi-Center Cohort Study.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- Underdiagnosed and Undertreated: Obesity and Its Cardiometabolic Burden in Swedish Clinical Practice-Insights From the AROS Database.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Article
- Observational
- Botulinum Toxin Treatment in Musician's Dystonia: Long-Term-Effects and Influencing Factors.Toxins · 2026Article
- Dynamics of healthcare inequalities in type 2 diabetes mellitus across the COVID-19 pandemic: a real-world population-based study.BMC health services research · 2026Observational
- Article
- Prevalence and Risk Factors for Keratoconus in Young Adults Assessed with Tomography and Corneal Biomechanics: A Prospective Cross-Sectional Study.Ophthalmology science · 2026Article
- Sociodemographic Determinants of Telemedicine Uptake Among Adults in the United States.Cureus · 2026Article
- Maternal Health Matters: Exploring the Links Between Parental Health and Illness Factors and Adolescent Functional Somatic Symptoms.JAACAP open · 2026Article
- Prevalence of post-concussion-like symptoms in children and adolescents in Germany: a cross-sectional study.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Health misinformation, digital health literacy, and attitudes toward science among university students: an exploratory cross-sectional survey.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Post-marketing safety surveillance of tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine: a disproportionality analysis of the vaccine adverse event reporting system (2015-2025).Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveWomen are reported to consult general practitioners (GPs) more frequently than men. However, previous studies on sex differences in help-seeking behavior for somatic symptoms do not distinguish between sex and gender, do not account for sex differences in presented symptoms, and are frequently conducted in clinical settings, automatically excluding non-help seekers. Therefore, we aim to assess the independent associations of sex and gender with primary care help-seeking for somatic symptoms in the general population. DESIGN AND
settingRecords from the longitudinal population-based Lifelines Cohort Study were linked to routine electronic health records from GPs. SUBJECTS: Participants reporting new-onset common somatic symptoms.
main outcome measuresAssociations between sex and gender, operationalized via a novel gender-index, with primary care help-seeking for somatic symptoms and differences in the strength of the association between gender and help-seeking for somatic symptoms between women and men.
resultsOf 20,187 individuals with linked data, 8325 participants (67.5% female; mean age = 44.5 years [SD = 12.9]) reported at least one new-onset somatic symptom. Hereof, 255 (3.1%) consulted the GP within 6 weeks of symptom onset. Female sex was positively associated with consulting the GP (OR = 1.78; 95%CI = 1.13-2.80), whereas feminine gender was not (OR = 0.67; 95%CI = 0.39-1.16). The latter association did not differ in strength between men and women. More paid working days are negatively associated with help-seeking (OR = 0.95; 95%CI = 0.91-0.98).
conclusionsThe results suggest that female sex rather than feminine gender is associated with primary care help-seeking behavior for somatic symptoms. Nevertheless, clinicians should be aware that gender-related variables, such as mean paid working days, may be associated with help-seeking behavior.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.