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Fatigue in Arthritis: A Multidimensional Phenomenon with Impact on Quality of Life

Fatigue and Quality of Life in Arthritis

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Book cover GeNeDis 2016

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 987))

Abstract

An important factor which influences the quality of life of patients with arthritis is the fatigue they experience. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between fatigue and quality of life among patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Between January 2015 and March 2015, 179 patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis completed the Fatigue Assessment Scale and the Missoula-VITAS Quality of Life Index-15 (MVQoLI-15). The study was conducted in Rehabilitation Centers located in the area of Peloponnese, Greece. Data related to sociodemographic characteristics and their individual medical histories were recorded. Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics version 19. The analysis did not reveal statistically significant correlation between fatigue and quality of life neither in the total sample nor among patients with osteoarthritis (r = −0.159; p = 0.126) or rheumatoid arthritis. However, there was a statistically significant relationship between some aspects of fatigue and dimensions of quality of life. Osteoarthritis patients had statistically significant lower MVQoLI-15 score than rheumatoid arthritis patients (13.73 ± 1.811 vs 14.61 ± 1.734) and lower FAS score than rheumatoid patients (26.14 ± 3.668 vs 29.94 ± 3.377) (p-value < 0.001). The finding that different aspects of fatigue may affect dimensions of quality of life may help health care professionals by proposing the early treatment of fatigue in order to gain benefits for quality of life.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank patients, staff and the Administration of the Rehabilitation Centers in Peloponnese region.

Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding

The authors declare no conflict of interest. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nursing, Faculty of Human Movement and Quality of Life Sciences, University of Peloponnese, Tripoli, Greece

    Victoria Alikari

  2. Faculty of Finance and Statistics, Department of Statistics and Insurance Science, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

    Athanasios Sachlas

  3. Laboratory of Nursing Research and Practice, Department of Nursing, Faculty of Human Movement and Quality of Life Sciences, University of Peloponnese, Tripoli, Greece

    Stavroula Giatrakou, Evagelos Fradelos & Paraskevi Theofilou

  4. Faculty of Human Movement and Quality of Life Sciences, Department of Nursing, University of Peloponnese, Tripoli, Greece

    John Stathoulis

  5. Department of Nursing, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Sindos, Greece

    Maria Lavdaniti

  6. Faculty of Human Movement and Quality of Life Sciences Department of Nursing, Efstathiou & Stamatikis Valioti and Plateon, University of Peloponnese, Sparti, 23100, Greece

    Sofia Zyga

Authors
  1. Victoria Alikari
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  2. Athanasios Sachlas
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  3. Stavroula Giatrakou
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  4. John Stathoulis
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  5. Evagelos Fradelos
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  6. Paraskevi Theofilou
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  7. Maria Lavdaniti
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  8. Sofia Zyga
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Correspondence to Sofia Zyga .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, Bioinformatics and Human Electrophysiology Laboratory, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece

    Panayiotis Vlamos

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Alikari, V. et al. (2017). Fatigue in Arthritis: A Multidimensional Phenomenon with Impact on Quality of Life. In: Vlamos, P. (eds) GeNeDis 2016. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 987. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57379-3_22

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