Development and Validation of the Norfolk Quality of Life Fatigue Tool (QOL-F): A New Measure of Perception of Fatigue.
Etta J Vinik, Aaron I Vinik, Serina A Neumann and 10 others
PMID 31859222WHAT IT FOUND
A new 35-item questionnaire separated cognitive fatigue, fatigue problems, reduced activity, daily-living tasks and low mood in 409 healthy adults; replication in a larger independent sample is needed.
Key findings
01The final QOL-F tool has 35 items grouped into five domains: subjective fatigue, problems due to fatigue, dysphoria, reduced activities, and activities of daily living.
02In 409 healthy adults aged 30 to 79, the 40–49 group had better total fatigue scores than all other groups.
03Females had significantly higher average fatigue scores than males, while ethnicity did not predict the general fatigue score.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The five-factor structure was developed from one sample of 409 healthy adults, and the authors say a larger independent sample is needed to confirm it. Participants were screened to exclude common systemic or ocular disease, diabetes, recent musculoskeletal injury, neurological conditions, vertigo, walking aids, difficulty standing, tremor and uncorrected visual deficits, so the tool may not behave the same way in patients with those conditions. The developers say starting from existing Norfolk and PROMIS items may have left out fatigue related to sleep problems, medical conditions and psychopathology.
Declared interests
The paper is labelled as supported by NIH extramural research; no author conflicts are stated in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the QOL-F as a patient-care outcome measure. It was developed in healthy adults, and the authors say the five-domain structure needs replication in a larger independent sample.