Fatigue and health‐related quality of life among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in China

Abstract

Objectives Fatigue is an important yet ignored symptom of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, there is a paucity of literature from China on fatigue and its association with health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) among COPD patients. The purpose of this study was to (a) evaluate fatigue of COPD inpatients in China and (b) explore the association between fatigue and HRQoL. Methods This cross‐sectional study recruited patients hospitalised for an acute exacerbation of COPD within one month from three general hospitals in central China. Disease severity, fatigue and HRQoL were assessed for all participants using COPD Assessment Test (CAT), 9‐item Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy‐Fatigue scale (FACIT‐F) and 12‐Item Short‐Form Health Survey (SF‐12v2). Results A total of 210 COPD patients participated in the study between April 2017 and January 2018, with an average age of 71.1 ± 12.2 years old. The overall prevalence of moderate to severe fatigue was 48.5%. A worse FACIT‐F score was associated with worse CAT score (r = −0.74, P < 0.01; B = −0.70, P < 0.01) and worse SF‐12v2 score (r = 0.77, P < 0.01; B = 0.66, P < 0.01). Conclusion Almost half of the COPD patients experience moderate to severe fatigue. Patients with greater disease severity exhibited more severe fatigue and worse HRQoL. Fatigue symptom has a strongly negative effect on COPD patients' HRQoL, physical health and mental health. Health personnel is recommended to provide fatigue‐related screening, counselling and health education, particularly for patients with moderate to severe COPD.

The Effect of the Physical Fitness and Breathing Training Program in COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China: prospective study

“…The prevalence of moderate to severe fatigue was 48.88% in COVID-19 patients, which was consistence with the COPD patients admitted to hospitals with an acute exacerbation, which is a more severe group of patients [15] .…”

“…The 9-item Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue scale (FACIT-F) was demonstrated to be reliable and valid for measuring COPD-related fatigue [14,15] .The 9-item FACIT-F scale consists of three components: general fatigue (5 items), functional ability (2 items) and psychological fatigue (2 items). Each item is rated from 0 to 4 and the overall score ranges from 0 to 36, with a higher score signifying less fatigue [16] .We applied the cut-off of 12 and 24 points, thus patients' fatigue degree was classi ed as mild (FACIT-F score 24 to 36), moderate (12 to 23) and severe (0 to 11).…”

The prevalence and related factors of fatigue in patients with COPD: a systematic review

“…In addition to the assessment method, the characteristics of the different study populations also contributed to the difficulty of interpreting the differences in prevalence rates between the studies. For example, the lowest prevalence rate (17%) was observed in a study by YANG et al [24], who studied fatigue in a sample of 210 patients with COPD hospitalised for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) during the moment of inclusion. In contrast, the highest prevalence of fatigue (95%) was reported by KINSMAN et al [40], who examined fatigue in patients during hospital stays in which patients were asked about occurrence of fatigue during breathing difficulties.…”

“…Fatigue can have major consequences on health status, as it may restrict patients' daily activities, lead to a worsened prognosis and is a predictor of mortality [5]. study was carried out in primary care settings [20], sixteen studies in secondary care settings [6,16,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], three studies were in pulmonary rehabilitation settings [35][36][37], two studies in tertiary care settings [38,39], and one study had a mixed population from secondary and tertiary care settings [40]. Only two studies used validated cut-offs to determine prevalence referring to normal, mild and severe fatigue [6,27].…”

A Systematic Literature Review of the Humanistic Burden of COPD

“…Changes in HRQoL in association with physical activity were reported in seven publications using SGRQ, CAT, SF-12, CCQ, and SF-36. 19,[34][35][36][37][51][52][53] A strong relationship was reported between physical activity and HRQoL, as determined by the association with the number of steps/ day and SGRQ activity scores in patients who were physically active compared with those who were not. 52 Ramon et al performed a pooled analysis investigating the usefulness of self-reported walking time to identify patients with COPD at high risk of inactivity and determined that selfreported walking time decreased with an increase in CAT score.…”