Fatigue is a major problem in a wide range of diseases including sarcoidosis. However, there is no standard measure for assessing fatigue. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) in two samples of sarcoidosis patients. Sample 1 included 1 046 members of the Dutch Sarcoidosis Society and Sample 2 consisted of 80 sarcoidosis patients of the outpatient clinic of the Sarcoidosis Management Centre Maastricht, the Netherlands. All patients completed the FAS as well as the 'energy and fatigue' subscale of the WHOQOL-100. Additionally, the participants of Sample 1 filled in the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). In addition, 241 patients of Sample 1 completed the FAS for the second time after a one-week interval. The FAS appeared to be a unidimensional scale. The content validity, construct validity and internal consistency of the FAS were good. The test - retest reliability was.89. Four FAS items appeared to have a gender bias: three items were uniformly biased and one item non-uniformly biased. Correction for gender bias in the calculation of the FAS total score is not indicated. In conclusion, the FAS is a promising measure for assessing fatigue in sarcoidosis patients.
Occup Environ Med 2003;60(Suppl I):i10-i15Aims: To compare the psychometric qualities of six fatigue questionnaires in a sample of working persons. Methods: Internal consistency and test-retest reliability, content validity, convergent validity, and the dimensionality of the fatigue instruments were explored. Results: All scales had a satisfactory internal consistency. Furthermore, based on factor analyses and Mokken scale analyses, all scales were unidimensional and appeared to measure an identical construct. The Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) had the highest factor loading on the one factor solution obtained in a factor analysis of the total scores of all scales. Conclusions: All the questionnaires were unidimensional and had good reliability and validity. The FAS was the most promising fatigue measure. F atigue is one of the major complaints in primary care settings.1 2 Also in general population studies, fatigue is commonly reported (14-22%).3 In a recent extensive study, it was found that about 25% of Dutch employees report fatigue at work. 4 Another Dutch study showed that over one third of the recipients of work disability benefit are occupationally disabled on mental grounds. 5 The majority of these individuals suffer from chronic job stress and burnout. The most characteristic component of burnout 6 is emotional exhaustion, a fatigue related concept. Emotional exhaustion refers to feelings of being overextended and depleted of one's emotional and physical resources. Fatigue is defined as "an experience of tiredness, dislike of present activity, and unwillingness to continue", 8 or as a "disinclination to continue to performing the task at hand and a progressive withdrawal of attention" from environmental demands.9 As a gradual and cumulative process, fatigue reflects vigilance decrement and decreased capacity to perform, along with subjective states that are associated with this decreased performance. It is a general psychophysiological phenomenon that diminishes the ability of the individual to perform a particular task by altering alertness and vigilance, together with the motivational and subjective states that occur during this transition.10 As a consequence, there is reduced competence and willingness to develop or maintain goal directed behaviour aimed at adequate performance.11 This view of fatigue is used in the present study.There is no standard way to assess fatigue. Fatigue can be measured objectively as well as subjectively. Objective fatigue measures focus on physiological processes or performance such as reaction time or number of errors.12 Subjective ways to assess fatigue include diary studies, interviews, and questionnaires. [13][14][15] Often, questionnaires are used in large scale studies because of their shortness and self report format.Until about 10 years ago, fatigue questionnaires for particular studies were mainly developed on an ad hoc basis. Two recent reviews 16 17 showed that most fatigue questionnaires are developed for specific patient groups, such as patients with cancer...
Objective: To examine the role of clinical and psychological characteristics as predictors of fatigue in CHF. Background: Little is known about predictors of fatigue in CHF. Next to heart failure characteristics, depressive symptoms and type-D personality may explain individual differences in fatigue. Methods: At baseline, 136 CHF outpatients (age ≤ 80 years) completed a questionnaire to assess depressive symptoms, type-D personality and cardiac symptoms. At one-year follow-up, they completed the Dutch Exertion Fatigue Scale and the Fatigue Assessment Scale to assess symptoms of fatigue. Medical information was obtained from the patients' medical records. Results: Exertion fatigue and general fatigue were identified as different manifestations of fatigue. We found that exertion fatigue at 12-month follow-up was predicted by decreased exercise capacity (β = −.35; p b .001), dyspnoea (β = 24; p = .002), hypertension (β = .16; p = .03), and depressive symptoms (β = .16; p = .05). In contrast, general fatigue at 12-month follow-up was predicted by dyspnoea (β = .24; p = .003), depressive symptoms (β = .27; p b .001), type-D personality (β = 17; p = .03), and sleep problems (β = .20; p = .01). Together, these variables explained 32% and 37% of the variance, respectively. Conclusion: The present study showed that fatigue was related to both clinical and psychological characteristics. The use of this knowledge may lead to a better understanding and treatment of the clinical manifestations of fatigue in CHF.
Fatigue is associated with quality of life in sarcoidosis patientsMichielsen, H.J.; Drent, M.; Peros-Golubicic, T.; de Vries, J. Published in: Chest Document version:Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2006 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA):Michielsen, H. J., Drent, M., Peros-Golubicic, T., & de Vries, J. (2006). Fatigue is associated with quality of life in sarcoidosis patients. Chest, 130(4), 989-994. General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.-Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research -You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain -You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Michielsen, PhD; Marjolein Drent, MD, PhD; Tatjana Peros-Golubicic, MD, PhD; and Jolanda De Vries, PhD, MSc Background: Fatigue is one of the core symptoms of sarcoidosis patients. Although it is known that fatigue affects quality of life (QOL) in other patient groups, this relationship has never been studied in sarcoidosis patients using a reliable and valid fatigue scale and a multidimensional QOL instrument. The present cross-sectional study among sarcoidosis patients attempts to gain more insight into this relationship.
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