[Fatigue and cancer--indivisible twins? A comparison between cancer patients, patients with diseases other than cancer and healthy people].
Fatigue has been described as a major distressing symptom in cancer patients. Its multidimensional concept can not be fully explained yet. The lack of valid, reliable measurement tools is one of the problems which inhibited further development of assessment in nursing as well as medical care. It was the aim of this study to 1) create and test a simple, easy to use Visual Analogue Fatigue Scale, 2) to explore levels and manifestations of fatigue in three sub-samples, 3) to analyse the expression of fatigue and to discern therapeutic, physiological and psychological factors linked with subjective ratings of fatigue. A prospective, non-randomised, descriptive design was used. The study-population included three sub-samples: 20 hospitalised cancer patients, 12 hospitalised patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease and 30 healthy individuals. Subjects documented their levels and expression of fatigue with a Visual Analogue Fatigue Scale and the Yoshitake Symptom Checklist. Cancer patients demonstrated clearly different symptoms of fatigue than gastroenterology patients and than healthy individuals. Peak-levels of fatigue were highest in healthy individuals but showed different characteristics and impact on wellbeing. Daily fatigue-evolution profiles were subsample-specific and demonstrated the difference between fatigue as a healthy phenomenon and fatigue as a distressing symptom.
Glaus
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D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000150:complications; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*
Müdigkeit und Krebs--untrennbare Zwillinge? Ein Vergleich zwischen Krebspatienten, Nicht-Krebspatienten und Gesunden.