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Fatigue trajectories during the first 8 months after breast cancer diagnosis

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Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this study was to identify distinct groups of fatigue trajectories among women with breast cancer and to evaluate whether age, anxiety symptoms, physical activity, and type of treatment were associated with belonging to the most adverse fatigue group.

Methods

Women scheduled for breast cancer surgery at Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, were consecutively invited to participate in the study (n = 424), resulting in 290 women included in the analyses. Semiparametric group-based mixture modeling was used to identify distinct trajectories of fatigue assessed the week before surgery and 4 and 8 months later. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate differences in the distinct fatigue groups.

Results

Two distinct groups of fatigue trajectories were identified. One group (21 %) had a high mean level, while the second group (79 %) had a low mean level of fatigue throughout the study. In multivariate analyses, sedentary physical activity (OR 5.78; 95 % CI 1.41–23.75), low physical activity (OR 3.17; 95 % CI 1.15–8.74), and increasing anxiety symptoms (OR 1.23; 95 % CI 1.14–1.33) before surgery were significantly associated with being in the high-fatigue group.

Conclusions

The results show that one-fifth of women with breast cancer experience continuously high fatigue up to 8 months after surgery and may have been more anxious and physically inactive. This knowledge is important in targeting interventions to women with fatigue throughout their treatment and who do not return to a low fatigue level with existing treatment, self-management, or support.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Nordic Cancer Union and the committee for Psychosocial Cancer Research at the Danish Cancer Society.

Conflict of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

Ethical standard

The study was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency. Approval by ethical review board was not necessary for this study, as no biological samples were obtained. All persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Survivorship Unit, Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Strandboulevarden 49, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Hanne Bødtcher, Pernille Envold Bidstrup, Christoffer Johansen & Susanne Oksbjerg Dalton

  2. Department of Social Medicine, Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Ingelise Andersen

  3. Statistics, Bioinformatics and Registry, Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jane Christensen

  4. Breast Surgery Clinic, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Birgitte Goldschmidt Mertz

Authors
  1. Hanne Bødtcher
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  2. Pernille Envold Bidstrup
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  7. Susanne Oksbjerg Dalton
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Correspondence to Susanne Oksbjerg Dalton.

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Bødtcher, H., Bidstrup, P.E., Andersen, I. et al. Fatigue trajectories during the first 8 months after breast cancer diagnosis. Qual Life Res 24, 2671–2679 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-015-1000-0

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