Differences in the experience of fatigue in patients and healthy controls: patients' descriptions
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Differences in the experience of fatigue in patients and healthy controls: patients' descriptions Marieke F Gielissen*1, Hans Knoop1, Petra Servaes1, Joke S Kalkman1, Marcus J Huibers2, Stans Verhagen3 and Gijs Bleijenberg1 Address: 1Expert Centre Chronic Fatigue Nijmegen, Radboud University, Nijmegen Medical Centre, The Netherlands, 2Department of medical, clinical and experimental psychology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands and 3Department of Medical Oncology of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, The Netherlands Email: Marieke F Gielissen* - [email protected]; Hans Knoop - [email protected]; Petra Servaes - [email protected]; Joke S Kalkman - [email protected]; Marcus J Huibers - [email protected]; Stans Verhagen - [email protected]; Gijs Bleijenberg - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 2 July 2007 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2007, 5:36
doi:10.1186/1477-7525-5-36
Received: 25 January 2007 Accepted: 2 July 2007
This article is available from: http://www.hqlo.com/content/5/1/36 © 2007 Gielissen et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: the primary objective was to develop an adjective checklist, the Fatigue Quality List (FQL), aimed at assessing different perceptions of fatigue. Methods: 961 participants filled out the FQL (28 adjectives). A component and confirmatory factor analyses were performed and psychometric properties were evaluated. Differences on factor scores between different patients' groups were investigated and pre- and post treatment scores were compared in demonstrating change of perceptions after treatment of fatigue. Results: Four independent factors were found with adequate psychometric properties. Different perceptions were found between the patients' groups. Patients who were recovered after treatment for fatigue showed similar scores on the factors as healthy controls. Conclusion: The FQL appears to be a promising tool in measuring different perceptions of fatigue, which can be especially interesting for clinical practice.
Background What is meant by fatigue? Most people are familiar with the experience of fatigue, but the meaning of this sensation can differ between people and even within one person the meaning of fatigue can change. Therefore, fatigue can be defined in different ways and there is no 'gold standard'. Healthy people would characterise fatigue as a pleasant, acute, normal and regulating phenomenon after exercise or a busy day, disappearing after a good night's sleep or a period of rest. However, fatigue can also have a more negative connotation as in fatigue experienced by
patients with a health problem. To them fatigue can be a chronic, disabling and life- and activity-limiting
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