OBJECTIVE: Fatigue is a common and important problem in SSc. No studies, however, have compared the properties of fatigue measures in SSc. The objective of this study was to compare the performances of the Short Form-36 (SF-36) Vitality subscale and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT) in SSc. METHODS: Cross-sectional, multi-centre study of Canadian Scleroderma Research Group Registry patients. The associations of the two instruments with other patient-reported outcome measures, as well as physician- and patient-rated disease variables were compared. Item response theory models were used to compare the degree to which items and the total scores of each measure effectively covered the full spectrum of fatigue levels. RESULTS: There were 348 patients (297 women, 85%) in the study. The instruments correlated at r = 0.65 with each other. The FACIT tended to correlate slightly higher than the SF-36 Vitality subscale with physician- and patient-rated disease variables and patient-reported physical function and disability, whereas the SF-36 Vitality subscale correlated minimally higher with mental health measures. The FACIT had markedly better discrimination across the range of fatigue, particularly at average to high fatigue levels, whereas the SF-36 Vitality subscale discriminated well only among patients in the low to average range. CONCLUSION: The FACIT discriminates better than the SF-36 Vitality subscale at average to high ranges of fatigue, which is common in SSc, suggesting that it is preferred for measuring fatigue in SSc.
OBJECTIVE:Fatigue is a common and important problem in SSc. No studies, however, have compared the properties of fatigue measures in SSc. The objective of this study was to compare the performances of the Short Form-36 (SF-36) Vitality subscale and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT) in SSc. METHODS: Cross-sectional, multi-centre study of Canadian Scleroderma Research Group Registry patients. The associations of the two instruments with other patient-reported outcome measures, as well as physician- and patient-rated disease variables were compared. Item response theory models were used to compare the degree to which items and the total scores of each measure effectively covered the full spectrum of fatigue levels. RESULTS: There were 348 patients (297 women, 85%) in the study. The instruments correlated at r = 0.65 with each other. The FACIT tended to correlate slightly higher than the SF-36 Vitality subscale with physician- and patient-rated disease variables and patient-reported physical function and disability, whereas the SF-36 Vitality subscale correlated minimally higher with mental health measures. The FACIT had markedly better discrimination across the range of fatigue, particularly at average to high fatigue levels, whereas the SF-36 Vitality subscale discriminated well only among patients in the low to average range. CONCLUSION: The FACIT discriminates better than the SF-36 Vitality subscale at average to high ranges of fatigue, which is common in SSc, suggesting that it is preferred for measuring fatigue in SSc.
Authors: Linda Kwakkenbos; Linda M Willems; Murray Baron; Marie Hudson; David Cella; Cornelia H M van den Ende; Brett D Thombs Journal: PLoS One Date: 2014-03-17 Impact factor: 3.240
Authors: Ariane L Herrick; Xiaoyan Pan; Sébastien Peytrignet; Mark Lunt; Roger Hesselstrand; Luc Mouthon; Alan Silman; Edith Brown; László Czirják; Jörg H W Distler; Oliver Distler; Kim Fligelstone; William J Gregory; Rachel Ochiel; Madelon Vonk; Codrina Ancuţa; Voon H Ong; Dominique Farge; Marie Hudson; Marco Matucci-Cerinic; Alexandra Balbir-Gurman; Øyvind Midtvedt; Alison C Jordan; Paresh Jobanputra; Wendy Stevens; Pia Moinzadeh; Frances C Hall; Christian Agard; Marina E Anderson; Elisabeth Diot; Rajan Madhok; Mohammed Akil; Maya H Buch; Lorinda Chung; Nemanja Damjanov; Harsha Gunawardena; Peter Lanyon; Yasmeen Ahmad; Kuntal Chakravarty; Søren Jacobsen; Alexander J MacGregor; Neil McHugh; Ulf Müller-Ladner; Gabriela Riemekasten; Michael Becker; Janet Roddy; Patricia E Carreira; Anne Laure Fauchais; Eric Hachulla; Jennifer Hamilton; Murat İnanç; John S McLaren; Jacob M van Laar; Sanjay Pathare; Susannah Proudman; Anna Rudin; Joanne Sahhar; Brigitte Coppere; Christine Serratrice; Tom Sheeran; Douglas J Veale; Claire Grange; Georges-Selim Trad; Christopher P Denton Journal: Ann Rheum Dis Date: 2017-02-10 Impact factor: 19.103
Authors: Ariane L Herrick; Deborah J Griffiths-Jones; W David Ryder; Justin C Mason; Christopher P Denton Journal: J Scleroderma Relat Disord Date: 2020-09-17