Validity of the multidimensional fatigue symptom inventory-short form in an African-American community-based sample

Abstract

Objectives This study examined the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-Short Form (MFSI-SF) in a community-based sample of African Americans. Design. A sample of 340 African Americans (116 men, 224 women) ranging in age from 18–81 years were recruited from the community (e.g., churches, health fairs, beauty salons). Participants completed a brief demographic survey, the MFSI-SF and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. Results The structural validity of the MFSI-SF for a community-based sample of African Americans was not supported. The five dimensions of fatigue (General, Emotional, Physical, Mental, Vigor) found for Whites in prior research were not found for African Americans in this study. Instead, fatigue, while multidimensional for African Americans, was best represented by a unique four-four profile in which general and emotional fatigue are collapsed into a single dimension and physical fatigue, mental fatigue, and vigor are relatively distinct. Hence, in the absence of modifications, the MFSI-SF cannot be considered to be structurally invariant across ethnic groups. A modified four-factor version of the MFSI-SF exhibited excellent internal consistency reliability and evidence supports its convergent validity. Using the modified four-factor version, gender and age were not meaningfully associated with MFSI-SF scores. Conclusion Future research should further examine whether modifications to the MFSI-SF would, as the findings suggest, improve its validity as a measure of multidimensional fatigue in African Americans.

The Use of p‐Aminobenzoic Acid as a Probe Substance for the Targeted Profiling of Glycine Conjugation

“…It has been indicated that normal ATP supply does not limit glycine conjugation; however, deficient availability of mitochondrial ATP reduces glycine conjugation capacity . With regard to the volunteers in this study, no impairment of ATP supply was suspected as all volunteers were evaluated according to the criteria of the Piper fatigue scale, Medical Symptoms Questionnaire, as well as the Fukuda criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome . Based on a severity scale from 0 to 10, 0 being no fatigue experienced and 10 being severe fatigue experienced, all of the volunteers included in Groups 2 and 3 scored between 0–2.…”

“…None of the volunteers presented with any known chronic illnesses. All volunteers were evaluated for relevant clinical symptoms using criteria of the Piper fatigue scale, Medical Symptoms Questionnaire, as well as the Fukuda criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome .…”

Impact of Adjunct Testosterone on Cancer-Related Fatigue: An Ancillary Analysis from a Controlled Randomized Trial

“…Minimal clinically important difference criteria established in Asian breast cancer patients were used to determine whether subjects experienced clinically meaningful deterioration of fatigue between measurements [ 61 ]. Normative data for MFSI subscales is available separately for African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic adults [ 62 , 63 ], but there is no pooled normative data available. We did not have a sufficient sample size to conduct statistical comparisons using each of the normative data sets.…”