Assessment of clinical relevant fatigue level in cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Fatigue is highly prevalent in cancer and greatly inferences with daily life. The goal of this study was to identify the most informative score in the Brief Fatigue Inventory and to define cut points for "mild," "moderate," and "severe" fatigue based on their relevance to quality of life (QOL).


METHODS
We surveyed cancer patients at five hospitals in Korea with self-administrated questionnaires. The patients were older than 18 years, have a histological diagnosis of malignancy, gave informed consent to participate, and were able to understand the questionnaires. We analyzed 150 cancer patients who reported fatigue.


RESULTS
"Usual fatigue" was a sensitive and reliable indicator of fatigue severity and was defined as mild (1-3), moderate (4-7), or severe (8-10) because it had the strongest correlation with the functional interference, symptoms, depression, and QOL.


CONCLUSIONS
These cutpoints might be useful in clinical evaluation of fatigue in cancer. Our findings suggest a simple technique for the rapid screening of fatigue and for evaluating its impact on the symptoms and daily functioning of cancer patients.
Chang
Yoon Jung
YJ
Research Institute for National Cancer Control and Evaluation, National Cancer Center, Goyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea.
Lee
Jung Suk
JS
Lee
Chang Geol
CG
Lee
Won Sup
WS
Lee
Keun Seok
KS
Bang
Soo-Mee
SM
Wang
Xin Shelley
XS
Mendoza
Tito R
TR
Cleeland
Charles S
CS
Yun
Young Ho
YH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005221:Fatigue / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires