title: Chronic fatigue is associated with increased disease-related worries and concerns in inflammatory bowel disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the impact of chronic fatigue on disease-related worries in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and the potential multicolinearity between subjective questionnaires.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients in remission or with mild-to-moderate disease activity completed the fatigue questionnaire (FQ), the rating form of IBD patient concerns (RFIPC), the Short-Form 36 (SF-36), and IBD questionnaire (N-IBDQ). In addition, clinical and epidemiological data were obtained.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 140 patients were included; of which 92 were diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and 48 with Crohn's disease. The mean age of patients with chronic fatigue was 44.2 years (SD = 15.8) and for non-fatigued patients was 44.7 years (SD = 16.0). Chronic fatigued patients had clinically significantly increased levels of disease-related worries, as measured by Cohen's d effect size. Worries about having an ostomy bag, loss of bowel control, and energy levels were most prominent in both chronic fatigued and non-chronic fatigued IBD patients. Variance inflation factor (VIF) and tolerance indicated that there were no problematic multicolinearity among the FQ, RFIPC, SF-36 and N-IBDQ responses (VIF < 5 and tolerance > 2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Chronic fatigue is associated with increased levels of disease-related worries and concerns in IBD. Increased levels of worries were also associated with impaired health-related quality of life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Oslo University Hospital Aker and Østfold Hospital Trust, 1603 Fredrikstad, Norway. l.p.jelsness-jorgensen@medisin.uio.no
authors.forename: Lars-Petter
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Jelsness-Jørgensen
authors.forename: Tomm
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bernklev
authors.forename: Magne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Henriksen
authors.forename: Roald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Torp
authors.forename: Bjørn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Moum
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D015673:Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires