Anlysis of Fatigue Perceived by the Mothers of Infants & Toddler

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The purpose of this study was to explore the various aspects of the fatigue in the mothers of infants and toddlers in descriptive study. Three hundred eighty mothers who visited the public primary health care center in subrural area were enrolled from October, 2001 to June, 2002. Data were collected using a questionnaire titled 'Symptom Table on Fatigue Perception' designed by the Fatigue Research Committee of Japan, consisted of a total 30 items categorized into three subdimensions: the physical, the psychological and the neuro-sensory. SPSS was used for the analysis of data with 0.05 of significance. The results were as follows: 1. The mean average fatigue score of subjects was 1.81(SD:.41): the physical fatigue revealed the highest value with a mean of 1.92(SD:.50), followed by psychological fatigue with a mean score of 1.79(SD:.48), neuro- sensory fatigue with a mean of 1.72(SD:.44). 2. With the respect to the general characteristics of subjects, there were statistically significant differences in the mothers' fatigue perception by with or without a job or not(t=2.213, p=.028), the number of children(t=-2.157, p=.032), the degree of spouse support in domestic households(F=3.315, p=.045), the degree of spouse support in the care of children(F=12.616, p=.000), and the amount of sleeping time(t=.130, p=.000). These results suggest that health care professional need to be aware of the persistent presence of the maternal fatigue related to the child rearing and the factors worsen the degree of the fatigue.