The Article in Brief

Prognosis of Fatigue and Functioning in Primary Care: A 1-Year Follow-up Study

Iris Nijrolder , and colleagues

Background Fatigue (feeling tired or exhausted) is a common symptom, but there has been little study of it in primary care patients. This study looks at the course of fatigue in primary care patients whose main symptom is fatigue.

What This Study Found The study results suggest a relationship between the degree of fatigue, ability to function, psychological symptoms, and quality of sleep. Most patients with fatigue fall into one of four groups: those who are highly fatigued on an ongoing basis (26%), those who have a fast recovery from fatigue (17%), those who have a slow recovery (25%), and those whose fatigue comes and goes (32%).

Implications

• As fatigue becomes less severe over time, there is improvement in functioning, sleep, and psychological symptoms.
• Only 17% of patients recover quickly from fatigue, and more than one-half of patients (58%) have recurrent or ongoing fatigue over the course of a year.
• To identify patients with ongoing or repeated fatigue, doctors should pay attention to patients’ general health or functioning, psychological symptoms, and sleep quality.