NOTE: The form for the BFI (Figure 1) page 1189 is copyrighted by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Number of items: 9, plus an introductory question
The first 3 items dealing with feelings of fatigue (right now, usual level, worst level) over the past 24 hours. These 3 items are graded from 0 (no fatigue) to 10 (as bad as you can imagine)
The next 6 items dealing with various activities of daily living, relationships or quality of life experienced over the previous 24 hours. These 6 items are graded from 0 (does not interfere) to 10 (completely interferes)
brief inventory index =
= SUM(points for all 9 items) / 9
Interpretation:
• minimum index:: 0
• maximum index: 10
• The higher the index, the greater the fatigue.
• Scoring the index when not all of the questions are answered needs to be clarified. Since the completion rate was very high (98%) this may be a minor issue.
• Identification of severe fatigue using a score >= 7 appears reliable (see pages 1194-1195) but separation of mild and moderate fatigue was less clearcut.
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Index
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Level of Fatigue
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0
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none
|
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1 to 3 (or 4)
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mild
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4 (or 5) to 6
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moderate
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7 to 10
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severe
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The use of an average score has certain advantages but also can mask a small number of extreme scores. An alternative scoring method used for other scores would be to convert the total score to a percent of maximal.
percent of maximal fatigue =
= SUM(points for all 9 items) / 90 * 100%
Performance:
• Almost all patients are able to complete the questionnaire.
• The index is internally stable (reliable) measure for severe fatigue. The Cronbach alpha was 0.95 to 0.96.
• It correlates highly with other measures of fatigue (page 1193).
