engleski

Fatigue is associated with quality of life in sarcoidosis patients

Background: Fatigue is the core symptom of sarcoidosis patients.Although it is know that fatigue affects quality of life (QOL) in other patient groups, the relationship has never been studied in sarcoidosis patients using a reliable and valid fatigue scale and a multidimensional QOL instrument. The present cross-section study among sarcoidosis patients attempts to gain more insight into that relationship. Methods: One hundred forty-five sarcidosis patients of an outpatient clinic in Zagreb, Croatia, completed the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) and QOL scale (World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment Instrument-100) between January 2002 and May 2004. Clinical parameters were derived from patients' medical files. Results: Tired patients reported a worse QOL in all domains and fatigue negatively predicted all QOL domains by means of multivariate regression analysis (beta values ranging from -0.31 to -0.64, all less then 0.001). Corticosteroids use was not a predictor of QOL. Diffusion capacity of the lung carbon monoxid was the only clinical parameter associated with a QOL domain, namely level of independence. Conclusion: Fatigue was related to all QOL domains. Furthermore, standard clinical parameters were not associated with fatigue or QOL, except for level of independence. If these results were to be replicated in a prospective study, fatigue as measured by the FAS could be a good indicator of QOL in sarcoidosis patients.

fatigue; quality of life; sarcoidosis

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