Summary: | Introduction: fatigue impacts perceived health, but its importance in inflammatory bowel disease is not known. Objectives: to define the applicability of the fatigue measurement questionnaires and analyze it in patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Material and methods: in a first phase, the psychometric properties of 3 fatigue measurement questionnaires were determined in 99 patients: Daily Fatigue Impact Scale, Fatigue Severity Scale, and Modified Fatigue Impact Scale. In a second phase, fatigue status and its relationship to disease and quality of life was determined in 127 patients and 69 healthy controls. Results: the first part of the study showed the applicability of the questionnaires listed in inflammatory bowel disease, the Daily Fatigue Impact Scale (DFIS) having the best correlation with the quality of life and clinical activity. In the second phase, significantly higher levels of fatigue were observed in active disease than in disease in remission and healthy controls (p < 0,05). The severity of fatigue was significantly correlated with quality of life (r = -0.66 and -0.72 between IBDQ-9 and DFIS and in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, respectively) and with disease activity (r = 0.25 and Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, respectively, p < 0.05). Conclusions: in inflammatory bowel disease, fatigue measurement questionnaires have good properties and show that fatigue is an important manifestation of the disease, which has a significant impact on quality of life of patients.
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