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Measuring fatigue severity in primary care patients
Arthur Hartz1, Suzanne Bentler, David Watson
1Department of Family Medicine, University of Iowa College of Medicine, 01292-D PFP, Iowa City, IA 52242-1097, USA.
Journal of Psychosomatic Research
|June 5, 2003
Summary
Researchers created a new fatigue scale by synthesizing existing instruments. This validated 11-item scale measures cognitive, fatigue, energy, and productivity, aiding in primary care and epidemiological studies.
Area of Science:
- Psychometrics
- Clinical Assessment
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Fatigue is a prevalent symptom impacting patient health status.
- Existing instruments for fatigue measurement vary in scope and application.
- A need exists for a validated, multidimensional fatigue scale in clinical settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a new, comprehensive instrument for measuring fatigue.
- To synthesize information from existing fatigue assessment tools.
- To create a scale suitable for primary care and epidemiological research.
Main Methods:
- A new fatigue scale was developed using factor analysis from 35 candidate items derived from 15 existing instruments.
- The scale was initially developed on a dataset of 409 primary care patients.
- Validation was performed on an independent sample of 816 subjects.
Main Results:
- The final 11-item scale comprises four subscales: cognitive, fatigue, energy, and productivity, with inter-correlations ranging from .49 to .66.
- Different data collection formats yielded comparable results for fatigue items.
- Higher fatigue scores correlated significantly with lower health status, increased depression, and more somatic symptoms.
Conclusions:
- The newly developed fatigue scale demonstrates utility for screening and monitoring fatigue severity and type.
- This instrument is potentially valuable for primary care settings.
- The scale's applicability in epidemiological studies for fatigue assessment is highlighted.