Factors related to fatigue; priority of interventions to reduce or eliminate fatigue and the exploration of a multidisciplinary research model for further study of fatigue

A growing interest in the health problem presented by fatigue, both in clin ical practice and research, coupled with a decreasing number of reported st udies on fatigue in the last decade, make an updated and systematic review of factors related to fatigue necessary. A search of the literature, compri sing 53 studies, was therefore undertaken to explore the following research questions: Which significantly social-demographic, cure-related, and care- related factors are significantly correlated with fatigue? And which nursin g interventions need priority in experimental research to reduce or elimina te fatigue? Reported factors related to fatigue in analysed studies show that the corre lations between the specific cure- and care-related factors and fatigue are similar among the various investigated (patient) populations. This result supports the concept of the non-specific character of fatigue. The intervention of primary effectiveness most suggested in this study is ' energy management'. Interventions of secondary importance which emerge are those of 'emotional support', 'activity therapy' and 'coping enhancement'. This study makes clear that the exploration of a research model for fatigue , with social-demographic, cure- and care-related factors is useful and tha t care-related factors have their own effects on fatigue not necessarily de pendent upon the presence of medical diseases or cure-related factors. In g eneral. multi-related factors could be assessed. Implications and relevant questions for further research on fatigue are also given. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.