Somatic symptoms are prevalent in kinds of medical conditions and mental disorders. Since they are associated with decreased quality of life, increased psychological distress, and increased use of health care services, the assessment of somatic symptom burden is essential in evidence based patient care and research. The Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) is a frequently used questionnaire to assess somatic symptom burden, but in which there are not any mental symptoms listed. Recently, we developed the Somatic Symptom Scale China (SSS-CN) which includes common mental symptoms and more comprehensive somatic symptoms to assess somatic symptom burden, but its assessment value has not yet been widely tested.~The aim of our study is to investigate the reliability and validity of the SSS-CN compared with the PHQ-15. We also try to use the SSS-CN to investigate the prevalence of somatic symptoms in patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) based on multi-centers inpatients.
The Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) is a frequently used questionnaire to assess somatic symptom burden. The Somatic Symptom Scale China (SSS-CN) was recently developed as a comprehensive self-report instrument in assessing somatic symptom burden, but its assessment value has not yet been widely tested in a nationwide. The study aims to investigate the reliability of the SSS-CN, to validate discriminate validity and factorial validity, and to investigate its utility in patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) based on multi-centers inpatients.