Cancer Related Fatigue in Breast Cancer Survivors: in Correlation to Demographic Factors.

BACKGROUND

Fatigue is one of the most frequent symptoms in cancer patients. However, its exact causes are still unknown, and this circumstance makes it complicated to encounter the problem.

OBJECTIVE

The current research was carried out to investigate factors associated with fatigue in cancer patients without other diseases.

METHODS

The research was conducted in 2013. A group of 150 randomly selected breast cancer patients who had successful surgical treatment and attending in oncology ward to receive chemotherapy and radiotherapy. They completed the Cancer Fatigue Scale; medical information was obtained through patient recorded files and demographic questions obtained by self-reported data. Then, univariate analysis between the CFS scores and the investigated factors was used to assess the potential fatigue associated factors; related factors (P<0.05) were retained.

RESULTS

The mean age of the subjects was 47.9 (SD=11.4), ranging from 25 to 72 years old. Among demographic factors, age (0.30, p= 0.006) and employment status (0.35, p=0.009) were correlated with physical aspects, whereas marital status (-4.0, p=0.001) and educational status (-0.59, p=0.005) were correlated with affective and cognitive aspects of fatigue scores, respectively. Among factors concerned with cancer and treatment such as disease stage, number of days since surgery, past intravenous chemotherapy, radiotherapy was not correlated with any aspects of fatigue. In this section, only the types of surgery (3.01, p=0.06) were correlated to the affective aspect of fatigue.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that fatigue in this population is determined by demographic factors rather than by cancer itself and prior cancer treatments, and that the modifying demographic situation, such as work time and supporting group arrangement as a self-help group as a social support for unmarried patients who live alone, might be essential clues in reducing fatigue in this population.