Dados do Trabalho

Title

FATIGUE ASSESSMENT IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS WITH FACIT SCALE.

Background

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory autoimmune condition that causes pain and diffuse inflammation on the joints. Disease's activity courses frequently courses with constitutional symptoms and, as reported by some patients, fatigue has been even harder to manage that pain on many occasions.

Materials and methods

Quantitative cross-sectional study based on the data collected through a validated version of the Fatigue Assessment Of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) scale in Portuguese. This questionnaire presents a score that varies from 0 to 30, in which higher ratings indicate maximum fatigue, being applied from March 2019 to June 2019. The sample consisted of patients from an outpatient clinic for rheumatoid arthritis at a rheumatology public hospital. The Research Ethical Committee approved this study and the subjects filled an informed consent term.

Results

A total of 22 patients answered the questionnaire; 90 % were women with an average age of 48 years old; 63% had above seven years of formal education; 60% presented at least one of this comorbidity such as systemic arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and depression. Two-thirds of the sample were being with immunobiological drugs. The individual score varied from a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 23, the highest being linked to a patient who also presented the diagnosis of systemic arterial hypertension and depression. The average score was 12, and the mode was 17. Regarding the time of the diagnosis, only two patients had a recent diagnosis (less than a year), while 90% of the sample revealed more than five years with the disease. It is essential to point out that one-third of the patients reported physical exhaustion, discomfort, and tiredness with daily tasks, independently of the scores.

Conclusions

Fatigue of RA patients is prevalent and not uniform, varying from little fatigue to too much fatigue. It's associated with other circumstances that might deteriorate the health condition. The FACIT scale revealed to be an effective instrument to presume the potential of fatigue on these patients.