title: Association between joint hypermobility and anxiety in Brazilian university students: gender-related differences.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anxiety disorders may be associated with several non-psychiatric disorders. Current literature has been investigating the association between anxiety and joint hypermobility (JHM), with special interest in non-articular symptoms that may be related to autonomic dysfunction. This study investigated the association between anxiety and JHM in a sample of Brazilian university students.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were cross-sectionally collected in two Brazilian universities (N=2600). Participants completed three validated self-rating anxiety scales: Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) and the brief-version of SPIN (Mini-SPIN). They also answered the self-rating screening questionnaire for JHM: the Five-part Questionnaire for Identifying Hypermobility.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hypermobile women showed significantly higher scores in all the anxiety scales, when compared with men: BAI total score (t=3.77; p<0.001), its four subscales, SPIN score (t=2.71; p<0.007) and Mini-SPIN (t=2.58; p<0.01). Among BAI subscales, the autonomic subscale was shown to be more significantly (t=3.89; p<0.001) associated with joint hypermobility in women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the present study support earlier evidence on the relationship between anxiety and JHM in women, showing specific gender-related features in this field. It also directs attention to non-articular symptoms that may be enrolled in this association.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Behavior Department, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto - University of São Paulo, Brazil; Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Institut d'Investigació Biomèdiques August Pi I Sunyer (IDIBAPS), CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Electronic address: shbianchi@uol.com.br.
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Sanches
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Behavior Department, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto - University of São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: F L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Osório
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Immunology, Center for Research in Inflammatory Disease, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto - University of São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Louzada-Junior
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Immunology, Center for Research in Inflammatory Disease, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto - University of São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moraes
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience and Behavior Department, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto - University of São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: J A S
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Crippa
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, Institut d'Investigació Biomèdiques August Pi I Sunyer (IDIBAPS), CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martín-Santos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007593:Joint Instability / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anxiety; Autonomic dysfunction; Joint hypermobility; University students; Women