Course of normal and abnormal fatigue in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and its relationship with domains of health status.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the difference between patients with normal and patients with abnormal fatigue on aspects of health status, and investigate the natural course of fatigue in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).


METHODS
Fatigue, physiological functioning, functional impairment, symptoms, and Quality of Life (QoL) were measured in 168 patients with COPD, and longitudinal data on fatigue of 77 patients were collected.


RESULTS
Fifty percent of patients had abnormal fatigue. Patients with abnormal fatigue reported significantly more problems on the sub-domains of functional impairment (except actual physical activity), symptoms, and QoL as compared to patients with normal fatigue. With respect to physiological functioning patients with normal fatigue scores had better exercise capacity. Four years later the percentage of patients with abnormal fatigue was increased to 64%. In 1/3 of the patients an increase of more than the minimal clinically important difference was found.


CONCLUSIONS
Many COPD patients suffer from abnormal fatigue. Patients with abnormal fatigue have more limitations on many aspects of health status, especially on symptoms, functional impairment, and QoL.


CONCLUSIONS
Fatigue should be evaluated in usual care with a questionnaire that corrects for normal fatigue in order to tailor treatment to patients' need.
Peters
Jeannette B
JB
Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. J.Peters@mps.umcn.nl
Heijdra
Yvonne F
YF
Daudey
Leonie
L
Boer
Lonneke M
LM
Molema
Johan
J
Dekhuijzen
P N Richard
PN
Schermer
Tjard R
TR
Vercoulen
Jan H
JH
D000368:Aged; D005221:Fatigue / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric