Conceptual definition of fatigue and selected specific time characteristics of fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis

Introduction: Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) experience fatigue as a subjective symptom with inter-individual variability.Fatigue is present at any time during the course of the disease, with varying durations over a period of time. Aim of the research:To determine the conceptual definition of fatigue in adult patients with MS and to describe fatigue over a given time period.Material and methods: 147 patients with MS (Group A) and 158 controls (Group B) participated in the quantitative prospective cross-sectional study.The questionnaire contained items focused on conceptual definition of fatigue, its duration during the day and its frequency during the week.The c 2 test of independence and the Student's t-test for two independent samples were used for statistical analysis.Results: Group A significantly more often than Group B perceived fatigue as muscle weakness, physical tiredness, whole body exhaustion, lack or absence of physical and mental strength, greater effort when performing activities, tired/heavy legs, increased tiredness, memory difficulties, problems with concentration, impatience, despondency, and apathy.Group A reported significantly longer duration of fatigue (4.82 hours) than Group B (2.49 hours) in 24 hours.The incidence of fatigue in 7 days was significantly more frequent in Group A (5.26 days) than in Group B (3.01 days).Conclusions: Understanding the conceptual definition and duration of fatigue leads to an effective management of the disease symptoms. StreszczenieWprowadzenie: Zmczenie u pacjentw ze stwardnieniem rozsianym (SM) jest odczuciem subiektywnym, interindywidualnie zrnicowanym.Zmczenie pojawia si w ktrymkolwiek okresie choroby, a jego czas trwania jest rwnie zrnicowany