Fatigue and its associated factors in Taiwanese women with systemic autoimmune diseases

23^rd World Nursing and Healthcare Conference

July 10-12, 2017 Berlin, Germany

Hsuan-Man Hung and Ming-Fu Chen

Department of Nursing, Tajen University, Taiwan.
St. Joseph Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Systemic autoimmune disease (SAD) occurs mainly in women population, and fatigue is the common clinical complains and has a negative impact on their quality of life. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Sjogren's syndrome have the higher prevalence other than SADs, which often attack the women with 30-50 years old. The cross-sectional study design was used. A convenience sample of 239 Taiwanese women with SAD were recruited. Data were collected from April 2015 to March 2016 using structured questionnaires including demographic characteristics, Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Mental Component Summary, Physical Component Summary, Perceived Stress Scale, Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, and Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire. The results reveal that above the FSS cutoff score of 36, indicating severe fatigue, 125 (52.3%) participants were categorized as sever fatigue. The mean score of the FSS was 38.55 �± 13.92. The best subsets for predicting the criterion variable of fatigue included depression, role overload, physical health status, regular exercise, age and educational level. Women with SAD who had depression, higher role overload, poor physical health status, sedentary life style, getting older, and higher educational level reported more fatigue, thereby adding to existing knowledge of the factors involved in fatigue of women with SAD.

Biography :

Hsuan-Man Hung is an Assistant Professor in Department of Nursing at Tajen University (Taiwan), and provides education in community health nursing and women's health education to undergraduate nurses, and I hold a Ph.D. degree in nursing from the Institute of Allied Health Science at National Cheng Kung University. My research interests focus on the field of community health nursing and women's health.