Sense of coherence in three cross-sectional studies in Northern Sweden 1994, 1999 and 2004 - patterns among men and women

Aims: To explore changes in sense of coherence (SOC) over a 10-year period in the general population in northern Sweden. Methods: Three cross-sectional surveys from 1994 (n=1802), 1999 (n=1698) and 2004 (n=1777), conducted within the northern Sweden MONICA Project, were compared. Participants answered questions about gender, age, experience of disease, perceived health, psychosocial factors and Antonovsky's SOC scale with 13 items. Results: A small, but significant, decrease in SOC medians and a shift of cumulative distributions towards slightly lower SOC values were seen both in the total study population and in its male and female subgroups between 1994 and 1999. No changes were seen between 1999 and 2004, with the exception of women between 25 and 44 years of age, who showed a continuous decrease. Conclusions: The present study shows that SOC at a population level in northern Sweden, within a 10-year span, is relatively stable, not withstanding minor changes. These small changes might be attributed to societal changes in Sweden during the 1990s and an increase in minor'' psychiatric complaints in the Swedish population as a whole during the same period.