Examining the symptom of fatigue in primary care: a comparative study using electronic medical records

Kathryn Nicholson,Moira Stewart,Amardeep Thind

doi:10.14236/jhi.v22i1.91

Abstract

BackgroundThe symptom of fatigue is one of the top five most frequently presented health complaints in primary care, yet it remains underexplored in the Canadian primary care context.ObjectiveThe objective of...

Highlights

This study found that 8.2% of the ICPC-2-R-coded patients over a one year period had at least one in-office visit in which the reason for their encounter was fatigue
This study examined the period prevalence, demographic characteristics, co-occurring morbidity and health care use patterns of patients who presented to their primary care provider with the symptom of fatigue
Our study demonstrated that almost one in 10 primary care patient visits were for the symptom of fatigue

Summary

Introduction

MethodsFatigue is one of the most frequently presented symptoms in primary care.[1,2] The prevalence of fatigue symptoms among primary care encounters has been estimated to be between 5% and 7%, depending on the definition of fatigue, with substantial associated health system costs.[2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] This common, yet complex, complaint represents a challenge for the primary care provider.[3,4,5] Often, fatigue symptoms can be a non-specific indicator of underlying physiological pathology, psychosocial distress or a combination of causes.[11]. Objective The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence and impact of patients presenting with fatigue in primary care, using the only known electronic database in Canada to capture patient-reported symptoms. Two groups of patients (fatigue or non-fatigue symptom) were followed for one year and compared. The period prevalence of fatigue presentation was 8.2%, with the majority of patients being female and over 60 years of age. These patients experienced numerous co-occurring morbidities, in addition to the fatigue itself. Conclusions This research used an electronic database to examine the symptom, fatigue Using these data, fatigue symptom patients were found to have higher rates of health care utilisation, compared to non-fatigue symptom patients

Objectives

Results

Conclusion