Mehran Fazli - Faculty of medicine, Student research committee, Mazandaran University of medical sciences, Sari, Iran
Masoud Shayesteh-Azar - Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

Fatigue is one of the most symptoms and main causes of impaired quality of life in multiple sclerosis (MS)patients.The aim of this study is to determinationrelationship between fatigue with gender, age and disease duration in MS patients. A descriptive, cross-sectional, designed survey was undertaken.Patients’ demographic information collectedandaskedthem to complete Visual Analogue Scale of fatigue status on the ‘day of assessment’ (VAS-F) and theFatigue Impact Scale for Daily Use(D-FIS)questionnaire.Data were analyzed by using SPSS software (version 16.0).Our study included 57 MS patients with mean age of 33.42±8.21 years. Female to male ratio was 2.56. The mean age of the MS onset was 29.58±7.51 years. The duration of MS disease was 3.80±3.35 years. 52 patients (91.22 %) reported fatigue. The mean±SD of VAS-F score was 46.14±25.96mm. We observed a significant positive correlation between VAS score with MS duration (r=0.301, P=0.003) and age of MS onset (r=0.216, P= 0.022). Mean of D-FIS score was 12.75±8.68. Male patients has a significant higher D-FIS score (17.50±9.65 vs. 10.90±7.62) (P=0.009). We observed a significant positive correlation between the D-FIS score with MS duration (r=0.237, P=0.027), age of MS onset (r=0.347, P= 0.008) and gender (r=0.345, P=0.009).The age of onset disease, disease duration and male gender have a positive significant correlation with higher fatigue impact in multiple sclerosis patients.

Multiple sclerosis, Fatigue, D-FIS, VAS-F