Chronic fatigue is associated with impaired health-related quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease.

BACKGROUND

Fatigue is reported to reduce health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in chronic diseases. Studies on the importance of fatigue and its implications for the patient's HRQOL in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remain scarce and need to be explored.

AIM

To investigate the influence of chronic fatigue on both generic and disease-specific HRQOL in IBD.

METHODS

Patients in remission, with mild and moderate IBD completed the Fatigue Questionnaire, the Short-Form 36 (SF-36) and the Norwegian version of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (N-IBDQ). In addition, demographic and clinical variables were obtained.

RESULTS

In total, 140 patients were included; the mean age of patients with chronic fatigue was 44.2 years (s.d. = 15.8), that of nonfatigued was 44.7 years (s.d. = 16.0). Ulcerative colitis (UC)/Crohn's disease (CD) = 92/48. Chronic fatigue was associated, after controlling for covariates, with a reduction of HRQOL scores in 6/8 SF-36 dimensions in UC and 5/8 dimensions in CD. In N-IBDQ, chronic fatigue was associated with a reduction of HRQOL in four subdimensions and total score in CD and all dimensions in UC.

CONCLUSIONS

Fatigue is associated with reduction of HRQOL scores in IBD. The physical HRQOL domains are particularly affected. The impact of fatigue on disability, sick leave, school and work attendance has to be studied further.