Fatigue in the Danish general population. Influence of sociodemographic factors and disease

Abstract

Objective-To measure the levels of fatigue in the general population, and to examine how disease and sociodemographic factors influence fatigue. Results-Fatigue scores were skewed towards absence of fatigue. The General Fatigue and Physical Fatigue scales showed the highest fatigue levels while the Reduced Motivation scale showed lowest levels. Gender diVerences in fatigue scores were small, but the variability among women was higher-that is, more women had high scores. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that respondents of low social status and respondents with a depression had high fatigue scores on all scales, independent of other factors. Chronic somatic disease had an independent direct eVect on Mental Fatigue, but for the rest of the scales, the eVect of somatic disease depended on age, gender and/or whether the person was living alone. For example, General and Physical Fatigue decreased with age among healthy people, whereas scores on these scales increased with age among those with a somatic disease. Conclusions-Physical and mental diseases play essential parts for the level of fatigue and as modulators of the associations between sociodemographic factors and fatigue. These interactions should be taken into account in future research on fatigue and sociodemographic factors and when data from clinical studies are compared with normative data from the general population. (J Epidemiol Community Health 2000;54:827-833)

Fatigue is a Prevalent and Severe Symptom Associated with Uncertainty and Sense of Coherence in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure

“…An explanation why the patients in the last study experienced more reduced ability to accomplish activities is their signifi cantly poorer functional status (higher NYHA class) (p = ≤0.001). The patients in Study I and II reported signifi cantly higher fatigue scores in all MFI-20 fatigue dimensions as compared with a general Nordic population (p = ≤ 0.001) (Watt et al, 2000). This fi nding verifi es that patients with CHF experience fatigue to greater extent compared with persons of the same age.…”

Fatigue in older adults: an early indicator of the aging process?

“…Some authors found no correlation (18,19); one study (20) found that the prevalence of both chronic and non-chronic fatigue decreases with age; others found a positive correlation (1,12,21,22). The results from the Danish population study among a random sample of 16-77-year-olds (17) may explain the ambiguity in this research. Fatigue decreased with age in the healthy part of the population, but increased with age among those with a chronic disease.…”

“…Several cross-sectional studies have shown associations between depression or depressive symptoms and fatigue (17,135) and development of fatigue (15,136,137). However, when adjusting the associations between fatigue and diverse outcomes by depressive symptoms, the results did not seriously change (33,58,62,64).…”

“…A cross-sectional Danish population study in a random age-stratified sample of 16-77-year-old persons showed that, on average, there was not much difference in fatigue between men and women, but that there was an excess of women among persons with very high levels of fatigue (17). It is not known whether women experience more severe fatigue than men, or whether the findings merely reflect the greater willingness of women to report health problems.…”

Fatigue and physical function after orthotopic liver transplantation

“…19 MFI-20 data were compared against an age-stratified general population sample of 1,608 randomly selected Danish men and women aged 20 to 79 years in a study of fatigue in the Danish general population. 24 Finally, HAD general population data were obtained from a study comparing anxiety and depression in patients with breast cancer against a sample of 872 women aged 31 to 75 years who were randomly selected from the Danish general population. 25 …”