title: Fatigue during and after cardiac rehabilitation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate fatigue during and after a multidisciplinary cardiac rehabilitation programme and its association with aerobic capacity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Longitudinal cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 121 patients with coronary artery disease (79% men), mean age 57 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fatigue was measured with the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and aerobic capacity with the 6-min walk test (6MWT). FSS scores ≥ 4 were defined as fatigue and >5.1 as severe fatigue. Measurements were taken before (T0) and after rehabilitation (T1) and at 1-year follow-up (T2).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fatigue decreased from 3.49 at baseline to 3.03 post-rehabilitation (p=0.002) and decreased further to 2.75 at follow-up (p<0.001 vs T0). At baseline, 17.7% of patients were classified as severely fatigued. After cardiac rehabilitation, the prevalence decreased to 10.6% (p<0.001) and to 8.1% at follow-up (p=0.011 vs T0). Although the prevalence of severely fatigued patients decreased, it was still high compared with healthy individuals (3.5%). Aerobic capacity was weakly associated with a reduction in fatigue (p=0.030).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Fatigue decreased during and after cardiac rehabilitation. However, the prevalence of severely fatigued patients remained high after cardiac rehabilitation. Fatigue should be identified at an early stage in order to provide additional programmes aiming to reduce severe fatigue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Erasmus Medical Centre, CAPRI cardiac rehabilitation, 3016BC Rotterdam, The Netherlands. m.vangeffen@caprihr.nl.
authors.forename: Myrna Elena
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: van Geffen
authors.forename: Nienke
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ter Hoeve
authors.forename: Madoka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sunamura
authors.forename: Henk J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Stam
authors.forename: Ron T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: van Domburg
authors.forename: Rita J G
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: van den Berg-Emons
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D015444:Exercise; D005080:Exercise Test; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index