Pain and fatigue in community-dwelling adults

Background. Pain and fatigue are common debilitating symptoms reported by both patient and community-dwelling populations. However, population-based studies typically focus on psychosocial variables as correlates of fatigue, with little effort toward assessing pain as a risk factor. This study examines the specific relationship between pain and fatigue and the importance of mood and sleep as covariates of fatigue in a community-dwelling sample of adults. We also assessed the prevalence of mild, moderate, and severe fatigue for this sample. Methods. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires assessing demographic characteristics and symptoms, including pain, fatigue, mood, and sleep disturbance, in a sample (N = 274) of community-dwelling adults. Results. Regression analyses showed pain, mood, and sleep as significantly associated with fatigue, with pain being the most highly correlated. However, while pain accounted for the largest proportion of the variability in fatigue, mood modified the relationship between pain and fatigue. We also found that 9% of the sample reported no fatigue, 41% reported mild fatigue, 42% reported moderate fatigue, and 8% reported severe fatigue. Conclusions. Our findings provide empirical support of the importance of assessing pain as an important risk factor of fatigue and examining mood as a covariate in population-based studies of fatigue.