FATIGUE IN PATIENTS WITH HEREDITARY HEMOCHROMATOSIS: A VALIDATION OF FATIGUE ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Michal SWIATCZAK1, Alicja RACZAK2, Agata ?WI?TCZAK3, Krzysztof M?ODZI?SKI1, Katarzyna SIKORSKA4, Ludmi?a DANI?OWICZ-SZYMANOWICZ1

1Department of Cardiology and Electrotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
2Clinical Psychology Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
3Department of Pediatrics, Hematology and Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
4Department of Tropical Medicine and Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland

Background. 

Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is a genetic condition with fatigue as one of its essential symptoms. There are some well-specified scales for fatigue assessment in other pathologies, but there is no data regarding their usefulness in HH.

This research aimed to validate the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), and Chalder Fatigue Scale (CFQ) and evaluate fatigue levels for HH patients.



Methodology.

A questionnaire containing items about detailed medical histories and all three fatigue assessment scales was administered to 79 HH patients, 25 healthy non-blood donors (CG), and 30 blood donors (BD). A standard procedure was used for the translation of all scales.



Results.

Excellent internal consistency and reliability for each scale were revealed in HH patients: Cronbach Alfa for FAS: 0.92, FSS: 0.95, CFQ: 0.93. Parameters obtained on three scales were significantly worse for patients with HH than in CG and BD (HH vs. CG p-value: FAS = 0.003, FSS = < 0.001, CFQ = 0,003; HH vs. BD p-value: FAS = 0.025, FSS = < 0.001, and CFQ = 0.041).



Conclusions.

That was the first implication of fatigue assessment scales in the HH population, which confirmed their excellent internal consistency and reliability. HH patients were characterized by significantly worse parameters on all scales, which indicates stronger fatigue. Our results demonstrate that FAS, FSS, and CFQ could be simple and reliable instruments to assess and quantify fatigue for clinical and research purposes in HH patients.