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Screening for fatigue in adolescent and young adult pediatric brain tumor survivors: accuracy of a single-item screening measure

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Abstract

Purpose

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is one of the most commonly reported and distressing symptoms experienced by adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors. While national guidelines have recommended screening for CRF during routine follow-up appointments, the validity of using a one-item screening measure for fatigue has not been examined with AYA brain tumor survivors. The purpose of this study is to assess how well a single-item fatigue screen could identify clinically significant fatigue in childhood brain tumor survivors.

Methods

A single-item measure, the Fatigue Thermometer (FT), was compared with a more in-depth measure, the Multidimensional Fatigue Scale (MFS), in a cohort of AYA pediatric brain tumor survivors. One hundred and forty-two survivors (aged 12–32 years) completed the two instruments.

Results

Forty-two survivors were identified on the MFS as having clinically significant fatigue, but the FT was not found to be an accurate tool for identifying these cases. Although receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of FT ratings against the MFS criterion indicated good concordance between measures, no cutoff score on the FT was identified that resulted in acceptable sensitivity and specificity.

Conclusions

Results from this study suggest that a single-item screening measure for fatigue is not able to reliably identify clinically significant fatigue in AYA brain tumor survivors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychosocial Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Sarah R. Brand & Cori Liptak

  2. Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    Christine Chordas, Peter Manley & Christopher Recklitis

Authors
  1. Sarah R. Brand
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  2. Christine Chordas
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  3. Cori Liptak
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  4. Peter Manley
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  5. Christopher Recklitis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah R. Brand.

Ethics declarations

Informed consent was obtained from all the participants or from the parents/legal guardians prior to participation in this study. All procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Brand, S.R., Chordas, C., Liptak, C. et al. Screening for fatigue in adolescent and young adult pediatric brain tumor survivors: accuracy of a single-item screening measure. Support Care Cancer 24, 3581–3587 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3150-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3150-1

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