Aims: To explore the change of fatigue and physical fitness and their associations in hospitalized leukemia patients before and after chemotherapy.
Methods: Eligible participants were leukemia patients, who were going to receive chemotherapy and in hospital at least one week, in a teaching hospital in northern Taiwan. Data was collected twice at 48 hours after admission(T1) and 48 hours before discharged(T2) by using Cancer Fatigue Scale and physical fitness examination with 6-minutes walking test(6MWT), grip strength with both hands, and 30-sec chair stand test(30-sec CST). Spearman ρcorrelation were used to examine the association between fatigue and indicators of physical fitness.
Results: A total of 18 patients were recruited and 16 patients completed the study procedures. The level of total fatigue, physical and cognition fatigue increased, but mental fatigue decrease. Besides, the distance of 6MWT, the grip strength of dominant hand, and times of 30-sec CST decreased. However, those changes did not show statistical significances. There was only times of 30-sec CST was negatively correlated with total fatigue at T2.
Conclusions: The level of fatigue that patient experienced increased and their physical fitness decreased after chemotherapy; therefore, they might need further education program in fatigue management and enhancing physical activity before discharged. Our preliminary finding revealed that 30-sec CST might be an indicator to predict fatigue for inpatients, but further studies with larger sample size are needed.