Causal Attributions for Fatigue by Older Adults With Advanced Cancer

Abstract

Context Fatigue is a prevalent, debilitating and often disruptive symptom for cancer patients. Yet, it remains inadequately understood and managed, especially among late middle- aged and older patients with advanced disease. Few studies have explored fatigue qualitatively and almost none have focused on patients’ attributions for this subjective and multidimensional symptom. Objectives Our objectives were to: 1) examine the attributions patients 55 or older with advanced cancer made for their fatigue and how they arrived at these attributions; and 2) understand how patients’ attributions affect how they contend with fatigue, including communication with health care providers. Methods We conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with 35 patients 55 years of age or older on their experiences with fatigue. Patients had a variety of cancers and were at stages IV or late III of the disease. Interviews were thematically coded and analyzed. Results Two main themes emerged: 1) Cancer-related treatment was the master and often the sole attribution patients made for their fatigue. Patients making this attribution expressed certainty about its accuracy and seemed less distressed about the symptom. 2) Multiple causes of fatigue, typically a combination of cancer, treatment and non-threatening causes (e.g., older age, overexertion, or anemia), were also offered by some. Patients seemed to resist identifying disease severity as a cause and appeared motivated to normalize and minimize the symptom, thus decreasing its threatening impact. Conclusion Patients’ causal attributions for fatigue had a profound effect on their physical and psychological well-being, their communication with providers, and their integration of the symptom into their lives.

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