Gut Liver.  2014 Mar;8(2):148-153.

Fatigue Severity and Factors Associated with High Fatigue Levels in Korean Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

• Yoo S
• Jung YS
• Park JH
• Kim HJ
• Cho YK
• Sohn CI
• Jeon WK
• Kim BI
• Park DI

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS
Many patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) often complain of fatigue. To date, only a few studies in Western countries have focused on fatigue related to IBD, and fatigue has never been specifically studied in Asian IBD patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the fatigue level and fatigue-related factors among Korean IBD patients.
METHODS
Patients in remission or with mild to moderate IBD were included. Fatigue was assessed using the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue and the Brief Fatigue Inventory. Corresponding healthy controls (HCs) also completed both fatigue questionnaires.
RESULTS
Sixty patients with Crohn disease and 68 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) were eligible for analysis. The comparison group consisted of 92 HCs. Compared with the HCs, both IBD groups were associated with greater levels of fatigue (p<0.001). Factors influencing the fatigue score in UC patients included anemia and a high erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR).
CONCLUSIONS
Greater levels of fatigue were detected in Korean IBD patients compared with HCs. Anemia and ESR were determinants of fatigue in UC patients. Physicians need to be aware of fatigue as one of the important symptoms of IBD to better understand the impact of fatigue on health-related quality of life.

Keyword

Fatigue; Inflammatory bowel diseases; Crohn disease; Colitis, ulcerative

MeSH Terms

Adult
Case-Control Studies
Colitis, Ulcerative/*complications/ethnology
Crohn Disease/*complications/ethnology
Fatigue/ethnology/*etiology
Female
Humans
Male
Republic of Korea/ethnology