Engberg I, et al. – The specialists illustrated the pattern of fatigue in the general population and analyzed its associations with age, sex, socioeconomic status, self–reported physical activity, sitting time and self–rated health. They reported that older, highly educated, physically active men, with little sedentary behavior were generally the least fatigued. Self–rated health was strongly associated with fatigue. Thus, interventions increasing physical exercise and reducing sedentary behavior were required to help patients with fatigue.

Methods

• 1557 out of 2500 invited subjects in the Northern Sweden MONICA Study 2014, aged 25–74 years, filled out the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI–20), consisting of four subscales: General fatigue (GF), Physical fatigue (PF), Reduced activity (RA) and Mental fatigue (MF).
• Questions regarding age, sex, socioeconomic status, physical activity, sitting time and self–rated health were also included.

Results

• Higher age associated significantly with lower fatigue scores for the GF and MF subscales.
• On all subscales, women had higher fatigue scores than men (p < 0.05).
• Among men, higher socioeconomic status was related to lower fatigue for the GF, PF and RA subscales (age adjusted p < 0.05).
• Among women, higher socioeconomic status was related to lower fatigue for the PF and MF subscales (age adjusted p < 0.05).
• For all subscales, higher physical activity was connected to lower levels of fatigue (age and sex adjusted p < 0.001) except for MF. 
• Longer time spent sitting was also related to more fatigue on all subscales (age and sex adjusted p < 0.005) except for MF. 
• Better self–rated health was strongly associated with lower fatigue for all subscales (age and sex adjustedp < 0.001).