RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the quantitative relationship between the intensity of psychosocial stress and the degree of overall health damages.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A multi-group case-control study was designed and implemented. The cases included two groups of out-patients (177) and in-patients (214) in a hospital in Jianyang city, and controls (587) were from the follow-up cohort in the same city. Three groups were studied on the following contents: general demographic characteristics, psychosocial factors and the degree of health damages including mental, physical, and social status. Major statistical analyses were as follows: ranks test, ANOVA, cluster analysis, multinomial logistic regression and ordered-logit regression.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Ordered-logit regression model showed that the odds ratio of negative life-events on degree of health damages was 1.335 (P < 0.01). This result showed that there was a positive dose-effect relationship between the negative life-events score and overall health damages. The utility of social support to overall health had protective effect (OR = 0.513).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Negative life-events were the major risk factors to overall health, and there was a dose-effect relationship between negative events and health damages. Function of social support played a protective factor for health.</p>