• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.755-765
• /
• 1999

Most people experience fatigue at some point in their lives, and they say the word ‘fatigue’ in their ordinary conversational speech. The ordinary word is used as a military or engineering term and has been studied in various different disciplines, such as ergonomics, physiology, psychology, medicine, and nursing. In spite of its widespread uses, however, fatigue has not been well defined. The term of fatigue Is thus often used with different meanings and is applied in diverse contexts that had led to a confusion of ideas. In people with cancer, fatigue is reported as a major distress. Despite the importance of fatigue in cancer patients, the phenomena of fatigue is poorly understood. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to analyze the concept of fatigue in people with cancer. The process for the concept analysis was guided by Walker and Avant's conceptual analysis methodology. The identified attributes of fatigue in the present study were subjective feeling, lack of energy, sustenance, and multidimensions. The antecedents were cancer treatment and economic status. The consequences were decreased daily, vocational, leisure, and social activities, uncertainty, and difficulties in adjustment. Symptoms (pain, anorexia, and insomnia) and emotional disturbance were not clear whether they are antecedents or consequences. However, they are related with cancer related fatigue. Even though still in the beginning stage, instruments measuring cancer related fatigue have been developed by some nursing investigators.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.365-372
• /
• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify degrees of fatigue and influencing factors for fatigue in cancer patients. Method: Data was collected by questionnaires from 115 cancer patients at 3 hospitals in Seoul. The research instruments utilized in this study were fatigue, physical symptoms, depression, family support, and health promoting behaviors. Data was analyzed using the pearson correlation, t-test, ANOVA, and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS/WIN 12.0. Result: The mean score of fatigue for cancer patients was 12.90(range: 6-36). Fatigue for cancer patients according to age group and weight change showed a significant difference. Fatigue for cancer patients showed a significantly positive correlation to physical symptoms and depression. There was a negative correlation between family support and health promoting behaviors. The significant factors influencing fatigue for cancer patients were physical symptoms, health promoting behaviors, depression, and age group, which explained about 45.9%. Conclusion: The results suggest that symptoms and depression management, nursing interventions and practices for providing health promoting behaviors according to age are needed to manage the fatigue in cancer patients.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.3-13
• /
• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship of fatigue and functional status in patients with cancer. Method: The data were collected from August, 15 to October, 10, 2005. The subjects were recruited from three university hospitals and two general hospitals in B, U, and S cities in Korea. Fatigue was measured using the Fatigue Scale for Cancer Patients, and Functional Status was measured using the Karnofsky Performance Status Index. Result: 1) The mean score of fatigue was $79.72{\pm}21.25$(range: 26-130), and the mean score of functional status was $79.33{\pm}13.02$. 2) There were significant differences in the scores of fatigue by sex, age, marital status, employment, major care-giver, pain, and period after diagnosis. 3) There were significant differences in the scores of functional status by employment, major care-giver, pain, stage of cancer, period after diagnosis, and type of cancer. 4) There was a significant negative correlation between fatigue and functional status (r= -.472, p= .000). Conclusion: Increase in fatigue was associated with decrease in functional status in patients with cancer. Nurses must assess fatigue and functional status when caring for the cancer patients, and provide nursing intervention to relieve fatigue and to improve functional status.

• Child Health Nursing Research
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.66-72
• /
• 2010

Purpose: This study was done to identify factors associated with fatigue in pediatric patients with cancer in order to develop nursing interventions for this population. Methods: The participants were 95 pediatric cancer patients admitted to a university medical center in Seoul, Korea, and 95 parents. The $PedsQL^{TM}$, Multidimensional Fatigue Scale developed by Varni (2002) was used to measure fatigue. Data were analyzed with the SAS program and t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression were used to identify the association of factors with fatigue. Results: The mean score for fatigue was 30.42 in the pediatric cancer patients and 34.77 in the parents. Fatigue was higher in patients living with a single parent, in patients whose father had a lower education and those patients with a fever. Pain, frequency and intensity of nausea and vomiting, depression, anxiety, and disruption of usual activity were positively associated with fatigue. The predictive factors for fatigue were disruption of usual activity, depression and living with or without parents. Conclusion: Pediatric patients with cancer experienced fatigue during their diagnosis and treatment. Of the multiple factors associated with fatigue, the association between disruption of usual activity and fatigue was the highest indicating a need to be concerned with this factor when providing interventions to alleviate fatigue.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.7
• /
• pp.3029-3033
• /
• 2014

Background: Dynamic changes of cancer-related fatigue (CRF) among hospitalized patients with colorectal cancer were determined. Materials and Methods: This longitudinal, descriptive study involved 96 hospitalized patients with colorectal cancer, all recruited from a tertiary general hospital in Guangzhou, China. Patients completed questionnaires three times to assess the degree of fatigue, and measurement points were within one week of admission, at 2 to 3 days after surgery and 3 weeks after surgery. Results: Significant differences among the three measurement points (p<0.01) were observed. The scores of fatigue in the second survey were the highest, followed by the third and first surveys. Colon cancer patient scores were higher than those of rectal cancer patients with a significant difference (p<0.05). Colorectal patients experienced different degrees of fatigue at different periods during hospitalization. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of interventions that are carefully tailored to patients based on the characteristics at different periods to alleviate fatigue.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.117-124
• /
• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess pain, sleep disturbance, fatigue, and the quality of life and to identify the impact of pain, sleep disturbance and fatigue on the quality of life in patients with pancreatic cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: Data were collected from June to July, 2010. Participants were recruited from Y university hospital in Seoul. Research instruments included numeric rating scale for pain, Functional Assessment Chronic Illness Therapy-Functional Well-Being (FACIT-FWB): General Factor 5 (GF5) for sleep disturbance, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) for quality of life, and FACT-Fatigue for fatigue. Results: The quality of life for cancer patients had a significant relationship with pain, sleep disturbance, and fatigue. The significant factors influencing quality of life were pain, sleep disturbance, and fatigue that explained 52.6% of the variance. Conclusion: Patients with pancreatic cancer undergoing chemotherapy experienced pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbance which led to a negative effect on quality of life. The results suggest that intervention program to improve quality of life could reduce pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbance of pancreatic cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

• CELLMED
• /
• v.12 no.5
• /
• pp.4.1-4.3
• /
• 2022

Objective: A Case Study of a Patient with Cancer Fatigue Syndrome and Cancer Metastases who Received Ortho-Cellular Nutrition Therapy (OCNT) Methods: The patient is a Korean woman aged 61 years. 13 years ago, she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer and underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. owever, 13 years later, the disease spread to the lungs and brain. Results: Following nutritional therapy, cancer fatigue syndrome improved. Conclusion: Nutritional therapy can be beneficial for cancer fatigue syndrome, a condition that remains undiagnosed and untreated.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.857-868
• /
• 2000

The purpose of the present study is to identify the mediation effect of hope between fatigue and psychosocial adjustment in women with breast cancer. The framework for this study was guided by concepts and propositions derived from the theoretical and empirical literature on fatigue, hope and adjustment. The design of this study is a descriptive correlation study using a cross-sectional design. One hundred and twenty two outpatients with early breast cancer, receiving post-surgical radiation therapy or chemotherapy, were selected from three major medical centers in Seoul, Korea. A packet including PABCF (Psychosoical Adjustment to Breast Cancer Factor), revised RPFS (Revised Piper Fatigue Scale), HHI (Herth Hope Index), and self-addressed return envelope was given to the participants at seven to eight weeks post surgery. The questionnaires were to be completed at home and returned to the researcher by mail. The obtained data were analyzed using three regression equations guided by Baron and Kenny (1986); first, hope was regressed on fatigue; second, psychosocial adjustment was regressed on fatigue; and third, psychosocial adjustment was regressed on fatigue and hope, simultaneously. In the first equation, fatigue explained 4% of the variance in hope. In the second equation, fatigue explained 47% of the variance in psychosocial adjustment. In the last equation, hope and fatigue significantly explained the variance in psychosocial adjustment. Therefore, all conditions for the test of mediation effect of hope were satisfied. For the test of the mediation effect, the beta coefficients of fatigue on psychosocial adjustment on the second and third regression equations were compared. The beta coefficients were decreased from .69 (p < .001) on the second regression equation to .63 (p < .001) on the third regression equation. Thus, the hypothesis of this study was supported. As a result of this study, the negative Influence of fatigue on psychosocial adjustment is dampened through the mediator effect of hope in women with breast cancer. Therefore, when planning care for the adverse effect of fatigue on psychosocial adjustment, oncology nurses should consider hope as a mediator between fatigue and psychosocial adjustment to breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.10
• /
• pp.4783-4790
• /
• 2016

Purpose: Cancer-related fatigue is frequently experienced by patients during and after therapy. The present study was conducted to assess the impact of energy conservation strategies and health promotion in breast cancer survivors. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was carried out to compare the intervention effect (n=69.0) with controls (n=66.0) based on routine oncology ward care. The intervention was five weekly sessions for groups of 6-8 breast cancer survivors. Data on fatigue and health promotion lifestyle were obtained before and after completion the intervention and then 8 weeks later for analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures. Results: Our findings showed cancer-related fatigue to be reduced in the intervention group from pre- to post-intervention, and this persisted over the 8-weeks follow-up period (F = 69.8, p<0.001). All subscales of the cancer fatigue scale demonstrated statistically significant effects with partial eta-squared values ranging from 0.15 (the smallest effect in cognitive fatigue) to 0.21 (the largest for affective fatigue). Changes in the health promotion life style indicated a significant promotion from pre- to post-intervention, and this again continued after 8-weeks follow-up (F = 41.6, p < 0.001). All six domains of a health promoting life style featured significantly elevated values, the largest effect being seen in the interpersonal relations subscale (F=57.7, partial ${\eta}^2=0.21$, p<0.001) followed by physical activity (F=51.9, partial ${\eta}^2=0.18$, p<0.001). Conclusions: The program was effective in decreasing cancer related fatigue and promoting a healthy lifestyle.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.1063-1067
• /
• 2015

Background: Tumor associated fatigue (TAF) or cancer related fatigue (CRF) is not a new concept. Nonetheless, no real headway has been made in the quantitative analysis of its successful treatment via cognitive behavioral therapy. Since 20 to 30% of all breast cancer patients suffer from anxiety and/or depression within the first year of their diagnosis, this issue needs to be addressed and a standard treatment protocol has to be developed. This study focused on developing a simple, reproducible and short (8 weeks) protocol for the cognitive behavioral therapy support of tumor associated fatigue patients. Materials and Methods: Between the year 2011 and 2012, 23 breast cancer patients fulfilled the diagnosis TAF requirements and were introduced into this study. Our method focused on a psycho-oncological support group using a predetermined, highly structured and reproducible, cognitive behavioral therapy treatment manual. Eight weekly, 90 minute sessions were conducted and patients were evaluated before and after this eight session block. Tumor fatigue specific questionnaires such as the multidimensional fatigue inventory (MFI) as well as the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) were used in order to quantitatively evaluate patient TAF. Results: Of the 23 patients enrolled in the study, only 7 patients fulfilled the TAF diagnostic criteria after the psycho-oncological group treatment. This represents a 70% reduction in diagnosable tumor associated fatigue. The HADS analysis showed a 33% reduction in patient anxiety as well as a 57% reduction in patient depression levels. The MFI scores showed a significant reduction in 4 of the 5 evaluate categories. With the exception of the "mental fatigue" MFI category all results were statistically significant. Conclusions: This study showed that a highly structured, cognitive behavioral therapy group intervention will produce significant improvements in breast cancer patient tumor associated fatigue levels after only 8 weeks.