Bakalidou Daphne, Krommydas Georgios, Abdimioti Triantafyllia, Theodorou Panagiotis, Doskas Triantafyllos, Fillopoulos Evaggelos
Laboratory of Neuromuscular and Cardiovascular Study of Motion (LANECASM) Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Health and Care Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, GRC.
Medicine, 1st Vocational Lyceum, Volos, GRC.
Cureus. 2022 Jun 26;14(6):e26344. doi: 10.7759/cureus.26344. eCollection 2022 Jun.
Fatigue is associated with various diseases of different origins extending from immune disorders to cancer. The purpose of this study was to explore the psychometric properties/dimensionality of the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) questionnaire in samples of healthy adults and patient subgroups in Greece.
This was a multicenter cross-sectional study that included 80 women with breast cancer, 108 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), 100 people with thalassemia diagnosis, and 185 healthy adults, aged 18-45 years. All patients were adults. Patients were recruited from a breast surgery clinic, a neurological clinic, and a thalassemia unit, while healthy adults were recruited from the University of West Attica students and personnel. The MFI-20, the modified fatigue impact scale (MFIS), the fatigue severity scale (FSS), and the Hamilton anxiety-depression scale (HANDS) were used. Internal consistency, repeatability, test-retest reliability, construct, and convergent validity were investigated.
MFI-20 exhibited excellent reliability properties (internal consistency: Cronbach's alpha MFI-20 subscales ranged from 0.83 to 0.94; repeatability: Pearson's r = 0.335 [p < 0.001]). Significant correlations were found between MFI-20 and MFIS: Pearson's r = 0.870, FSS: Pearson's r = 0.582 - 0.335, and HANDS: Pearson's r = 0.734 - 0.442 (all p-values < 0.0001) on all subsamples. However, its dimensionality is questionable depending on the subpopulation tested, and the one-dimension perspective is possible. MS patients exhibited the highest total score (55.26 ± 16.53), while thalassemia patients exhibited the lowest score (45.09 ± 13.54). In all subscales, thalassemia patients differed statistically significantly from the MS patients (p < 0.01), while in the reduced activity subscale, thalassemia patients differed significantly from all other groups (p < 0.01).
As strict fatigue subscale classification is questionable, the use of MFI-20 total score is suggested for the assessment of fatigue in clinical populations. As MFI-20 is a very useful research tool for studying fatigue, the use of the total and/or partial scores depends on the clinical population. Total score instead of (or additionally) partial scores is suggested in clinical practice.
疲劳与多种不同病因的疾病相关，范围从免疫紊乱到癌症。本研究的目的是探讨多维疲劳量表（MFI - 20）问卷在希腊健康成年人及患者亚组样本中的心理测量特性/维度。
这是一项多中心横断面研究，纳入了80名乳腺癌女性、108名多发性硬化症（MS）患者、100名地中海贫血确诊患者以及185名年龄在18 - 45岁的健康成年人。所有患者均为成年人。患者从一家乳腺外科诊所、一家神经科诊所和一个地中海贫血治疗单元招募，而健康成年人从西阿提卡大学的学生和工作人员中招募。使用了MFI - 20、改良疲劳影响量表（MFIS）、疲劳严重程度量表（FSS）和汉密尔顿焦虑抑郁量表（HANDS）。研究了内部一致性、重复性、重测信度、结构效度和收敛效度。
MFI - 20表现出出色的信度特性（内部一致性：MFI - 20各子量表的克朗巴哈α系数范围为0.83至0.94；重复性：皮尔逊相关系数r = 0.335 [p < 0.001]）。在所有子样本中，MFI - 20与MFIS之间存在显著相关性：皮尔逊相关系数r = 0.870，与FSS之间：皮尔逊相关系数r = 0.582 - 0.335，与HANDS之间：皮尔逊相关系数r = 0.734 - 0.442（所有p值 < 0.0001）。然而，其维度根据所测试的亚群体而存在疑问，一维视角是可能的。MS患者的总分最高（55.26 ± 16.53），而地中海贫血患者的得分最低（45.09 ± 13.54）。在所有子量表中，地中海贫血患者与MS患者在统计学上有显著差异（p < 0.01），而在活动减少子量表中，地中海贫血患者与所有其他组有显著差异（p < 0.01）。
由于严格的疲劳子量表分类存在疑问，建议在临床人群中使用MFI - 20总分来评估疲劳。由于MFI - 20是研究疲劳的非常有用的研究工具，总分和/或部分分数的使用取决于临床人群。在临床实践中建议使用总分而非（或额外）部分分数。
