Objective
To investigate the psychometric properties of the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) in community-dwelling older adults.
Design
Cross-sectional validation study.
Setting
Community-based longitudinal cohort aging study in Westchester County, New York.
Participants
Subjects (N=302) were non-demented older adults (mean age 76.44 years, 54% female).
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
BFI total, severity, and interference summation scores.
Results
A Principle Component Analysis (PCA) yielded two factors: fatigue severity and interference, explaining 65.94% of the variance. Both factors had good reliability, with Cronbach’s α values of 0.867 for fatigue interference and 0.818 for fatigue severity. Higher fatigue scores were associated with older age and worse physical and cognitive functions.
Conclusions
Fatigue is a common and debilitating symptom in the aging population. The current study provides novel findings in validating and establishing a bi-dimensional factor structure for the BFI in older adults. Severity and interference were differentially related to important health outcomes; therefore, utilizing these subscales in addition to the total BFI scaled score is recommended with older adults. Because of its relatively short administration time and established psychometric properties, the BFI can be successfully incorporated into longitudinal studies and clinical trials.
Objective
To develop and validate a subjective measure of cognitive fatigue—the State-Trait Inventory of Cognitive Fatigue (STI-CF)—in community-dwelling older adults.
Design
Scale development and test construction.
Setting
Community-dwelling older adults enrolled in a longitudinal cohort aging study.
Participants
Participants (N=175) were healthy, English-speaking, community-dwelling adults, age 65 and above.
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
STI-CF total, cognitive fatigue, motivation, mental effort, and boredom summation scores for both state and trait forms.
Results
Principal component analysis yielded the expected four components for both state and trait forms: cognitive fatigue, mental effort, motivation, and boredom. All components had good reliability. There was good convergent validity as measured by the strong positive relationship between cognitive fatigue and a subjective measure of general fatigue, even after controlling for depressive symptoms. Greater subjective cognitive fatigue was associated with worse performance on measures thought to be more sensitive to aspects of executive functioning.
Conclusions
The current study developed and established the psychometric properties of a new instrument for the subjective measurement of cognitive fatigue for use in community-dwelling older adults. The STI-CF’s relatively brief administration time (less than 10 minutes; M = 5.6, SD = 2.9) and strong psychometric properties support its utility in both research and clinical settings. Future studies should establish the psychometric properties of this scale in other populations and examine its predictive utility for relevant clinical outcomes.
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