Dissecting the fatigue experience: A scoping review of fatigue definitions, dimensions, and measures in non-oncologic medical conditions

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Introduction

Fatigue is a prevalent and potentially debilitating symptom that impacts the health-related quality-of-life of individuals diagnosed with acute and chronic medical conditions. Yet, its etiologic mechanism is not fully understood. Additionally, the assessment and determination of the clinical meaning of fatigue and its multidimensionality may vary by medical condition.

Methods

A scoping literature review was conducted to investigate how fatigue is defined and measured, including its dimensions, in non-oncologic medical conditions. The PubMed database was searched using keywords.

Results

Overall, 8376 articles were screened at the title/abstract levels, where 293 articles were chosen for full-text review that mentioned fatigue or included fatigue measures. The review of the full text excluded 246 articles that did not assess at least one fatigue dimension using validated questionnaires and clinical tests. The final set included 47 articles. Physical fatigue was the most assessed fatigue dimension and the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory was the most widely used questionnaire to assess fatigue in this review.

Limitations

This review was limited by including only English-language publications and using PubMed as the sole database for the search.

Conclusions

This review affirms that fatigue is a multidimensional construct, agnostic of medical condition, and that individual fatigue dimensions can be measured by validated clinical measures. Future research should focus on expanding the repertoire of clinical measures to assess specific fatigue dimensions.

Highlights

•

The 27 different validated clinical measures used to assess fatigue and its dimensions; 20 instruments assessed the physical, 8 for mental, 7 cognitive, 5 for motivational, 2 for emotional, 1 peripheral, 1 for central, 1 psychosocial.
•

Physical was the most measured dimension, as assessed in 42 of 47 included articles.
•

This review affirms that fatigue is a multidimensional construct, agnostic of medical condition, and that individual fatigue dimensions can be measured by validate clinical measures.

Related collections

Most cited references 68

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance among US physicians relative to the general US population.

Tait Shanafelt, Sonja Boone, Litjen Tan … (2012)

Despite extensive data about physician burnout, to our knowledge, no national study has evaluated rates of burnout among US physicians, explored differences by specialty, or compared physicians with US workers in other fields. We conducted a national study of burnout in a large sample of US physicians from all specialty disciplines using the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile and surveyed a probability-based sample of the general US population for comparison. Burnout was measured using validated instruments. Satisfaction with work-life balance was explored. Of 27 276 physicians who received an invitation to participate, 7288 (26.7%) completed surveys. When assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, 45.8% of physicians reported at least 1 symptom of burnout. Substantial differences in burnout were observed by specialty, with the highest rates among physicians at the front line of care access (family medicine, general internal medicine, and emergency medicine). Compared with a probability-based sample of 3442 working US adults, physicians were more likely to have symptoms of burnout (37.9% vs 27.8%) and to be dissatisfied with work-life balance (40.2% vs 23.2%) (P < .001 for both). Highest level of education completed also related to burnout in a pooled multivariate analysis adjusted for age, sex, relationship status, and hours worked per week. Compared with high school graduates, individuals with an MD or DO degree were at increased risk for burnout (odds ratio [OR], 1.36; P < .001), whereas individuals with a bachelor's degree (OR, 0.80; P = .048), master's degree (OR, 0.71; P = .01), or professional or doctoral degree other than an MD or DO degree (OR, 0.64; P = .04) were at lower risk for burnout. Burnout is more common among physicians than among other US workers. Physicians in specialties at the front line of care access seem to be at greatest risk.

0 comments Cited 506 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Dimensional assessment of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Jan H.M.M. Vercoulen, Caroline Swanink, Jan F.M. Fennis … (1994)

The absence of laboratory tests and clear criteria to identify homogeneous (sub)groups in patients presenting with unexplained fatigue, and to assess clinical status and disability in these patients, calls for further assessment methods. In the present study, a multi-dimensional approach to the assessment of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is evaluated. Two-hundred and ninety-eight patients with CFS completed a set of postal questionnaires that assessed the behavioural, emotional, social, and cognitive aspects of CFS. By means of statistical analyses nine relatively independent dimensions of CFS were identified along which CFS-assessment and CFS-research can be directed. These dimensions were named: psychological well-being, functional impairment in daily life, sleep disturbances, avoidance of physical activity, neuropsychological impairment, causal attributions related to the complaints, social functioning, self-efficacy expectations, and subjective experience of the personal situation. A description of the study sample on these dimensions is presented.

0 comments Cited 334 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

The Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Functions (FSMC): validation of a new instrument to assess multiple sclerosis-related fatigue.

P Calabrese, Klaus Opwis, M Stöcklin … (2009)

Fatigue symptoms are reported by a majority of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Reliable assessment, however, is a demanding issue as the symptoms are experienced subjectively and as objective assessment strategies are missing. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a new tool, the Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Functions (FSMC), for the assessment of MS-related cognitive and motor fatigue. A total of 309 MS patients and 147 healthy controls were included into the validation study. The FSMC was tested against several external criteria (e.g. cognition, motivation, personality and other fatigue scales). The item-analysis and validation procedure showed that the FSMC is highly sensitive and specific in detecting fatigued MS patients, that both subscales significantly differentiated between patients and controls (p 0.91) as well as test-retest reliability (r > 0.80) were high. Cut-off values were determined to classify patients as mildly, moderately or severely fatigued. In conclusion, the FSMC is a new scale that has undergone validation based on a large sample of patients and that provides differential quantification and graduation of cognitive and motor fatigue.

0 comments Cited 183 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Contributors

Leorey N. Saligan

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Brain Behav Immun Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Brain Behav Immun Health

Title: Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health

Publisher: Elsevier

ISSN (Electronic): 2666-3546

Publication date PMC-release: 21 May 2021

Publication date Collection: August 2021

Publication date (Electronic): 21 May 2021

Volume: 15

Electronic Location Identifier: 100266

Affiliations

[1]National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

Author notes

[∗ ]Corresponding author. National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health 9000, Rockville Pike, Building 3, Room 5E14, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA. saliganl@ 123456mail.nih.gov

[1]

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Article

Publisher Item ID: S2666-3546(21)00069-7 Publisher ID: 100266

DOI: 10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100266

PMC ID: 8474156

PubMed ID: 34589772

SO-VID: f26c21fc-cbe6-4f4f-abd9-74b31fceadc0

License:

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

History

Date received : 21 January 2021

Date revision received : 29 April 2021

Date accepted : 3 May 2021

Comments

Comment on this article

scite_

Cited by 18

See all cited by

Most referenced authors 653

See all reference authors

Dissecting the fatigue experience: A scoping review of fatigue definitions, dimensions, and measures in non-oncologic medical conditions

Read this article at

Abstract

Introduction

Methods

Results

Limitations

Conclusions

Highlights

Related collections

Medical Physics Publishing

Most cited references 68

Burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance among US physicians relative to the general US population.

Dimensional assessment of chronic fatigue syndrome.

The Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Functions (FSMC): validation of a new instrument to assess multiple sclerosis-related fatigue.

Author and article information

Contributors

Journal

Affiliations

Author notes

Article

History

Categories

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 52

Cited by 18

Most referenced authors 653