Psychometric Properties of the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale

Abstract

Psychometric assessments are tests or questionnaires that have been designed to measure constructs of interest in an individual or a target population. A goal of many of these self-report instruments is to provide researchers with the ability to gather subjective information in a manner that might allow for quantitative analysis and interpretation of these results. This requires the instrument of choice to have adequate psychometric properties of reliability and validity. Much research has been conducted on creating self-report quality of life questionnaires for individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). This article focuses on one in particular, the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS). The article starts with a brief description of the rationale, construction, and scoring of the inventory. Next, the best available reliability and validity data on the MFIS are presented. The article concludes with a brief discussion on the interpretation of scores, followed by suggestions for future research. This summative analysis is intended to examine whether the instrument is adequately measuring the impact of fatigue and whether the scores allow for meaningful interpretations.

Rasagiline for the symptomatic treatment of fatigue in Parkinson's disease

“…Of note, whereas patients receiving rasagaline had a greater improvement in both the MFIS and FSS, they also had greater baseline scores in these measures and remained slightly higher than control subjects for the MFIS at the end of the trial. Also, the total change in MFIS may be lower than clinically meaningful change, which may be 10 points or higher in multiple sclerosis patients (it has not been tested in PD) . Further studies are needed to determine what scale(s) best capture clinically meaningful change in PD.…”

“…Also, the total change in MFIS may be lower than clinically meaningful change, which may be 10 points or higher in multiple sclerosis patients (it has not been tested in PD). 40 Further studies are needed to determine what scale(s) best capture clinically meaningful change in PD. This finding also raises the question of whether relative improvements in a fatigue score or the percent of participants achieving a certain absolute score (similar to the idea of remission in depression trials) better captures clinically meaningful improvement for PD fatigue trials.…”

Neurofilament light chain serum levels correlate with 10‐year MRI outcomes in multiple sclerosis

“…EDSS and T2FW are collected in all CLIMB subjects annually. Subjects in the QOL subgroup of CLIMB annually completed several patient reported outcomes (PROs) and this analysis included a fatigue measurement (modified fatigue impact scale, MFIS)21 and cognition (symbol digit modalities test, SDMT) 22…”

“…EDSS and T2FW are collected in all CLIMB subjects annually. Subjects in the QOL subgroup of CLIMB annually completed several patient reported outcomes (PROs) and this analysis included a fatigue measurement (modified fatigue impact scale, MFIS) 21 and cognition (symbol digit modalities test, SDMT). 22 Standard protocol approvals, registrations, and patient consents Institutional Review Board approval was granted by the Partners Human Research Committee, and participants provided written informed consent for participation.…”

Relationship Between Fatigability and Perceived Fatigue Measured Using the Neurological Fatigue Index in People with Multiple Sclerosis

“…12 However, a recommendation from the Multiple Sclerosis Council for Clinical Practice Guidelines suggests that the MFIS needs further psychometric evaluation. 13 The MFIS does not fit into the Rasch model analysis, 14 which uses a psychometric approach to develop and refine patientreported outcomes and renders the MFIS score invalid. This might partially explain the conflicting results in previous studies that attempted to explore the relationship between fatigue assessed using MFIS and fatigability in people with MS. 15 Fatigability, also called performance fatigability to distinguish it from perceived fatigability, 4,5 is defined as a measure of change in the performance of a physical or a cognitive task over time 9,10 and can be objectively quantified by the clinician or researcher.…”