The Silhouettes Fatigue Scale: comprehensibility and validity in older individuals.
Autor: Miró, Jordi; Sánchez-Rodríguez, Elisabet; Brijaldo, Solángel; Jensen, Mark P.
Publication year: 2020
Disability and rehabilitation
issn:1464-5165 0963-8288
doi: 10.1080/09638288.2018.1539129
Abstract:
Purpose: Fatigue has been shown to be one of the key factors that interfere in the quality of life of elderly individuals. In order to understand its impact and evaluate the efficacy of treatments that target fatigue, researchers and clinicians need psychometrically sound and easy to use assessment instruments. The aim of this work was to address this need by evaluating the comprehensibility and validity of the Silhouettes Fatigue Scale (SFS) in a sample of older individuals.Methods: A total of 70 older individuals participated in the study. Participants were interviewed individually and asked to rate their level of fatigue during the week before the interview using the SFS and the FACIT-Fatigue Scale (to help evaluate convergent validity), and respond to the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (to help evaluate discriminant validity).Results: The results indicate that the SFS is understandable and that the scores have an adequate convergent validity and discriminant validity when used with older adults.Conclusions: The SFS is a valid measure of fatigue that can be used with older adults. It fills the need for a brief and easy to administer and score measure, which can be used in situations where assessment burden is a significant issue.Implications for rehabilitationFatigue is a significant problem among the elderly resulting in significant disability, and psychometrically sound and easy to use questionnaires are needed.The Silhouettes Fatigue Scale (SFS) is a new single-item self-report fatigue rating scale.Results show that the SFS is understandable, and that the scores have discriminant and convergent validity when used with older adults.As it does not use written items, it may be more easily understood by people who have basic or even no literacy level, thus making it easier to use for a wider audience.
Language: eng
Rights:
Pmid: 30672341
Tags: Humans; Reproducibility of Results; Aged; Surveys and Questionnaires; Self Report; assessment; Psychometrics; validity; *Quality of Life; Fatigue; *Fatigue/diagnosis; Silhouettes Fatigue Scale
Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30672341/
