The Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Liverpool, L9 7LJ, UK.
Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2010 Feb 12;8:22. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-8-22.
Fatigue is a common and debilitating symptom in multiple sclerosis (MS). Best-practice guidelines suggest that health services should repeatedly assess fatigue in persons with MS. Several fatigue scales are available but concern has been expressed about their validity. The objective of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a new scale for MS fatigue, the Neurological Fatigue Index (NFI-MS).
Qualitative analysis of 40 MS patient interviews had previously contributed to a coherent definition of fatigue, and a potential 52 item set representing the salient themes. A draft questionnaire was mailed out to 1223 people with MS, and the resulting data subjected to both factor and Rasch analysis.
Data from 635 (51.9% response) respondents were split randomly into an 'evaluation' and 'validation' sample. Exploratory factor analysis identified four potential subscales: 'physical', 'cognitive', 'relief by diurnal sleep or rest' and 'abnormal nocturnal sleep and sleepiness'. Rasch analysis led to further item reduction and the generation of a Summary scale comprising items from the Physical and Cognitive subscales. The scales were shown to fit Rasch model expectations, across both the evaluation and validation samples.
A simple 10-item Summary scale, together with scales measuring the physical and cognitive components of fatigue, were validated for MS fatigue.
疲劳是多发性硬化症（MS）患者常见且使人虚弱的症状。最佳实践指南建议医疗服务机构应反复评估 MS 患者的疲劳状况。目前有多种疲劳量表，但人们对其有效性表示担忧。本研究旨在检验一种新的多发性硬化症疲劳量表——神经疲劳指数（NFI-MS）的可靠性和有效性。
对 40 名 MS 患者的访谈进行了定性分析，为疲劳的定义提供了依据，并确定了 52 个具有代表性主题的潜在项目集。一份草案问卷寄给了 1223 名 MS 患者，随后对所得数据进行了因子分析和 Rasch 分析。
635 名（51.9%的回复率）受访者的数据被随机分为“评估”和“验证”样本。探索性因子分析确定了四个潜在的子量表：“身体”、“认知”、“白天睡眠或休息缓解”和“夜间睡眠异常和嗜睡”。Rasch 分析进一步减少了项目数量，并生成了一个包含身体和认知子量表项目的总结量表。这两个量表在评估和验证样本中均符合 Rasch 模型的预期。
为多发性硬化症疲劳症，我们验证了一种简单的 10 项总结量表，以及用于测量疲劳身体和认知成分的量表。
