Psychosocial variables and fatigue: a longitudinal study comparing individuals with rheumatoid arthritis and healthy...

In individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and healthy controls, at enrollment and one year later, we evaluated relationships between diverse psychosocial characteristics and fatigue in multivariate analyses.

Participants with RA and controls completed the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) at enrollment and again after one year. All participants also completed measures of depressive symptoms, anxiety, role satisfaction, social support, social stress, disability, physical activity, and sleep quality at enrollment.

A total of 122 individuals with RA and 122 controls of similar age, sex, education, employment, and marital status were enrolled. Those with RA had more fatigue compared to controls (FSS scores 4.2 +/- 1.2 vs 3.4 +/- 1.1; p < 0.0001) (possible range 1-7, higher score = more fatigue). In cross-sectional multivariate regression analysis for the RA group, more fatigue was associated with more anxiety, more disability, less social support, and more social stress (p

Fatigue was relatively stable over time and was common in both the RA group and controls. In addition, fatigue was more closely associated with psychosocial factors in the RA group, and social stress was identified as a relatively unexplored potentially modifiable variable independently related to fatigue in RA.