Epidemiology of Somatoform Symptoms and Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The aim of the current systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine the prevalence and incidence of somatoform symptoms and disorders (also referred to as medically unexplained symptoms, psychosomatic symptoms, functional syndromes, somatization disorder, or somatic symptom disorder) in childhood and adolescence. The PRISMA guidelines were followed, and the review was registered prior to initiation (PROSPERO CRD42022339735). Fitting search terms were entered in Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed in June, 2022. Included were articles, reports, book chapters, and conference papers that reported on the prevalence or incidence rates of somatoform symptoms and disorder in under-18-year-olds with empirical primary data; these needed to be published in English or German. Publications were excluded if they focused on abuse, trauma, serious illness, or hypochondria, as well as if they had a qualitative or experimental (intervention) study design. To be included in the meta-analysis, studies needed to report values suitable to calculate a pooled prevalence or incidence rate. After the full-text screening, 33 articles remained, of which 29 were used for the meta-analysis. The quality evaluation criteria proposed by Loney and colleagues (1998) were utilized for quality assessment. The pooled global prevalence rate was 31.0% for somatoform symptoms and 3.3% for somatoform disorders, yet heterogeneity remained high. The noteworthy prevalence rates have important implications for healthcare professionals, as well as school nurses and counselors.