Fatigue is common in cancer survivors but often insufficiently treated. Due to its complexity a one-size-fits-all treatment seems not appropriate. To gain more information on influencing factors and sub-dimensions of fatigue we investigated potential determinants and correlates of physical, affective, and cognitive fatigue in breast cancer survivors during and after adjuvant therapy. Within the follow-up of two randomized controlled trials physical, affective, and cognitive fatigue were repeatedly assessed during and up to 12 months after cancer therapy with the 20-item Fatigue Assessment Questionnaire in 255 breast cancer survivors. Determinants of the different fatigue dimensions over time were explored with linear mixed models. Chemotherapy appeared as significant precipitating factor for physical fatigue. However, type of cancer therapy had no impact on fatigue one year post-treatment. Obesity was significantly associated with increased physical fatigue throughout all time points (Δ=15.5 at 12 months) whereas exercise appeared to be beneficial (Δ=-6.3). In contrast, affective fatigue was significantly associated with poor social support and worries about the future. In addition, poor sleep quality and previous use of psychopharmaceuticals were significantly associated with physical, affective, as well as cognitive fatigue. Further, hot flashes were associated with increased physical and cognitive fatigue. In conclusion, the broad diagnosis "fatigue" in cancer survivors needs to be recognized as a diversity of symptoms determined by specific characteristics and likely different etiologies. Taking potential influencing factors such as obesity, physical inactivity, sleep problems, hot flashes, lack of social support, or psychological disorders into consideration might enable a better, individually-tailored fatigue treatment. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 29 October 2018.
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#9,121,720
of 29,323,179 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of Cancer
#5,289
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Outputs of similar age
#120,104
of 346,121 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of Cancer
#45
of 129 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 29,323,179 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 68th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 13,118 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.0. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 59% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 129 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 65% of its contemporaries.
