Cancer-related Fatigue and its Relationship with Demographic and Clinical Characteristics

Background and objectives: Fatigue experience is a psychological experience therefore, the relevant caregivers’ acquaintance with this issue is the most important step in offering optimal care for the patients. Accordingly, this study was conducted to determine Cancer-related Fatigue and its Relationship with Demographic and Clinical Characteristics in Cancer Patients. A cancer diagnosis is a highly undesirable event for anyone. Methods: characteristics form and the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory. The data were analyzed with the SPSS- 18 software and t-test and ANOVA and tukey post hoc test were used. In this analytical study, 150 cancer patients visiting the oncology unit, the Shafa Radiotherapy Center,and Gorgan’s 5th Azar Teaching Hospital in 2012, who were selected with a purposive sampling method,participated in the study for 4 months. The required information was collected using a demographic and clinical Results: of treatment, 51.3% used chemotherapy-surgery-radiotherapy regimen, 24.7% surgery-chemotherapy regimen, 14% used chemotherapy, 7.3% used radiotherapy, and 2.7% used surgery. The overall mean score of fatigue was 54.65±8.78 from 100. The variables of residence (P=0. 018), the duration of marriage (P=0.018), the treatment regimen type (P<0.001), and the family’s economic status (P<0.000) were found to The patients’ mean age was 48.39±1.5 Of the patients, 55.3% had undergone less than 12 months have a significant relationship with fatigue. Conclusion: Psychological interventions, besides physical caring and nursing interventions play a significant role in the all-inclusive management of cancer patients’ problems, in particular, their fatigue.

Cancer-related Fatigue and its Relationship with Demographic and Clinical Characteristics Keywords:

Fatigue , cancer patients , clinical characteristics , demographic characteristics