Subjective Fatigue and Its Influencing Factors in Patients having Chronic Arthritis

만성관절염 환자의 주관적 피로와 영향 요인

This study was conducted to identify the characteristics of fatigue and its influencing factors in patients having chronic arthritis. The subjects of this study were 120 patients who visited a Rheumatis Center of H University Hospital. Data were collected from Aug. 9, 1997 to Feb. 5, 1998. For analysing data, SPSS/Win was used for descriptive statistics & Pearson's correlation coefficient, and Lisrel 8.0 was for path analysis. The findings were as follows : 1. Mean score of subjective fatigue was 5.36 and it means moderate degree of fatigue. 2. Fatigue showed positive relationship with pain & depression, and it showed negative relationship with ADL & self efficacy. 3. Fatigue was influenced by pain and depression. and was not influenced by ADL and self efficacy directly. But ADL and self efficacy influenced on fatigue through pain and depression indirectly. According to this findings. the significant influencing factors of fatigue were pain and depression, therefore the development of nursing intervention for relieving pain and depression would be needed.