Prevalence of alexithymia and its association with sociodemographic variables in the general population of Finland

The prevalence of alexithymia and its association with sociodemographic variables were studied in a sample of 1285 subjects representing the general population of Finland. Alexithymia was measured with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Alexithymia was normally distributed in the population in both genders, confirming that it is a personality dimension. The prevalence of alexithymia was 13%. Men were alexithymic almost twice (17%) as often as women (10%), Multivariate analysis showed that alexithymia was associated with male gender, advanced age, low educational level, and low socioeconomic status. As to the three factors of the TAS-20, men scored higher in factors 2 (difficulty in describing feelings) and 3 (externally oriented thinking), but there was no gender difference in factor 1 (difficulty in identifying feelings). Comparative population studies in other countries are needed to find out whether there are any differences in the prevalence of alexithymia between cultures. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.