The fatigue perception and its role in patient management
Abstract
Objective: Fatigue is one of the most common complaints in primary care. Patients' fatigue perceptions may be very different from each other. We aimed to determine the fatigue perception and its relationship with fatigue severity, sociodemographic characteristics, history, physical examination and laboratory findings in patients with complaints of fatigue.
Methods: This study was carried out as a cross-sectional study in a tertiary family medicine clinic between June 2016 and June 2017. All patients aged 18 years and over who were complaining of fatigue for at least 1 month were invited to study. Fatigue perceptions of volunteers who agreed to participate in the study (n = 116) were evaluated with a structured form prepared by researchers. Fatigue severity was measured using Fatigue Severity Scale and Checklist Individual Strength surveys. Patients’ records including history, physical examination and laboratory results were included in the study.
Results: The mean age of participants was 29.5 ± 9.8 years and 87.9% were female. We asked patients “what do they mean by fatigue?” and “what fatigue complaints contain?”. Tiredness, lack of energy and sleeplessness - somnolence - desire to sleep were the most common answers. Expression that had the highest score from the fatigue severity scales was the needle hurt sensation for all body. In patients’ records, the most common findings in patients with fatigue were vitamin D deficiency (84.5%), sleeping problem (72.8%) and depression (69%). When the relationship between fatigue perceptions and possible etiologic factors was examined, it was observed that most of them were related with the depression risk. As a result, it was observed that seven different findings affected nineteen different fatigue perceptions.
Conclusion: In this study, fatigue perception has been shown to be as important as other features. The physicians should investigate its content and try to understand the patient.
Keywords
References
- 1. Kenter EG, Okkes IM, Oskam SK, Lamberts H. Tiredness in Dutch family practice. Data on patients complaining of and/or diagnosed with "tiredness". Fam Pract. 2003;20:434-40.
- 2. Andrea H, Kant IJ, Beurskens AJHM, Metsemakers JFM, van Schayck CP. Associations between fatigue attributions and fatigue, health, and psychosocial work characteristics: a study among employees visiting a physician with fatigue. Occup Environ Med. 2003;60:99-104.
- 3. Sharpe M, Wilks D. Fatigue. BMJ. 2002;325:480-3.
- 4. Cullen W, Kearney Y, Bury G. Prevalence of fatigue in general practice. Ir J Med Sci. 2002;171:10-2.
- 5. Kenter EG, Okkes IM. [Patients with fatigue in family practice: prevalence and treatment]. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 1999;143:796-801.
- 6. Mengel M, Schwiebert P. Family Medicine: Ambulatory Care and Prevention. McGraw-Hill; 2013;168-73 p.
- 7. Bates DW, Schmitt W, Buchwald D, Ware NC, Lee J, Thoyer E, et al. Prevalence of fatigue and chronic fatigue syndrome in a primary care practice. Arch Intern Med. 1993;153:2759-65.
- 8. Fosnocht KM, Ende J. Approach to the adult patient with fatigue 2017 [updated 13.06.2016. Available from: https://www.uptodate.com/contents/approach-to-the-adult-patient-with-fatigue?source=search_result&search=fatigue&selectedTitle=1~150.
Details
Primary Language
Turkish
Subjects
Health Care Administration
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Turan Set
This is me
0000-0001-5931-0861
Türkiye
Elif Ateş
This is me
0000-0003-3805-7144
Türkiye
Publication Date
March 17, 2018
Submission Date
March 17, 2018
Acceptance Date
February 21, 2018
Published in Issue
Year 2018 Volume: 45 Number: 1