Abstract
Background: Heart failure (HF) affects ~6 million people in the US and is associated with marked morbidity and adverse clinical outcomes. Among HF patients, fatigue is common and distressing symptoms that significantly impacts patient quality of life and function. Current literature primarily examines fatigue as a single and generalized symptom. Fatigue is hypothesized, however, to manifest as multiple types, with both general and exertional components. Unique subtypes of fatigue in HF may require differential assessment and treatment to improve patient-reported and clinical outcomes. Objective: To identify unique fatigue subtypes in persons with prevalent HF in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of 1,114 participants at Visit 5 (2011-13) of the ARIC study with prevalent HF. We used the Modified Medical Research Council Breathlessness scale obtained at Visit 5 to assess exertional fatigue, and the PROMIS fatigue scale obtained at the 1 st semi-annual follow up after Visit 5 (2012-2014) to assess general fatigue. We used latent class analysis to identify unique subtypes of fatigue based on patterns of responses to each of the scales. Results: Participants were 54% female and 38% Black with a mean age of 77 ± 5.5. We identified four latent classes of fatigue symptoms: 1) low/no fatigue, 2) high exertional & moderate general fatigue, 3) high general & low exertional fatigue, and 4) high general & exertional fatigue. The low/no fatigue class was the largest with an estimated 35.2% of the sample. The high exertional & moderate general class and the high general & low exertional class had similar estimated prevalences (23.5% and 23.8%, respectively). The high general & high exertional class was the smallest with an estimated 17.4% prevalence. Conclusions: We identified unique subtypes of fatigue in HF patients that have not been previously described in the literature. Future studies should examine the relationship between these latent classes of fatigue type and important patient-reported and clinical HF outcomes. Understanding these fatigue types and their relationships to outcomes may enhance our understanding of the symptom experience and inform prognostication in patients with HF.
Published Version
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