Taking fatigue seriously, II: Variability in fatigue levels in cancer patients

Joel E. Dimsdale, Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Liat Ayalon, Timothy F. Elsmore, William Gruen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Fatigue is a common and distressing complaint of cancer patients. It is typically measured with symptom inventories that reflect the patient's experience over the previous days or weeks. This study examined short-term variation in fatigue levels in a heterogeneous group of cancer patients over a 3-day period to examine the feasibility of such repeated assessments and to characterize the extent and pattern of fatigue symptoms in cancer patients. Thirty-four cancer outpatients with diverse malignancies wore a prototype fatigue watch monitor for three consecutive 24-hour periods and provided fatigue ratings every hour while awake for the 3 days. Patients completed an average of 40 self-reports over 72 hours. These reports revealed a diurnal variation in fatigue, with increasing levels in the evening. The reports also revealed considerable differences across individuals and within individuals in terms of fatigue ratings. Multiple ratings of fatigue within short periods of time can be obtained and reveal that fatigue levels are quite variable, even within an individual. Cancer patients experience their fatigue as "moderate to extreme" 33% of the time.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)247-252
Number of pages6
JournalPsychosomatics
Volume48
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by NIH grants CA96631, CA84866, CA112035, CA85264, CBCRP 11IB-0034, HL36005, HL44915, and MH18399 .

Funding

This research was supported by NIH grants CA96631, CA84866, CA112035, CA85264, CBCRP 11IB-0034, HL36005, HL44915, and MH18399 .

FundersFunder number
National Institutes of HealthCA84866, CA112035, HL36005, MH18399, CBCRP 11IB-0034, CA85264, HL44915
National Cancer InstituteR21CA096631

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