Chemotherapy-induced Fatigue among Jordanian Cancer Patients: What are the Contributing Factors?

Background: the purposes of this study were to examine the impact ofchemotherapy treatment on jordanian cancer patients’ fatigue and to correlate their fatiguewith selected sociodemographic variables at the beginning of treatment and after fourweeks of treatment.methods: this was a single group quasi-experimental correlational design studythat enrolled 43 patients diagnosed with cancer who required chemotherapy treatment.fatigue was measured according to the piper fatigue scale (pfs) before startingchemotherapy treatment and after four weeks of receiving the first dose of chemotherapy.data were collected over a period of four weeks and analyzed with descriptive statistics,the paired-sample t-test, and pearson product-moment correlation.results: the study included 17 (39.5%) males and 26 (60.5%) females with a meanage of 45.98 years. most (n=17) were diagnosed with breast cancer. obesity waspresent in about 64.4% of patients. the majority (46%) received an anthracycline-basedregimen. there were statistically significant differences between respondents’ total meanscores of fatigue pre-treatment and four weeks following chemotherapy treatment (t=-2.31, df=42, p < 0.05). in addition, significant differences were found in the scores forbehavioral, affective, sensory, and cognitive dimensions subscales (t= -2.24, -2.19, -2.4, -2.4, df=42, p < 0.05) between pre-treatment and four weeks after receiving the firstdose of chemotherapy treatment. we observed a significant negative relationshipbetween fatigue scores and hemoglobin levels (r= -0.04, p < 0.01).conclusion: cancer-related fatigue is common among cancer patients who receivedchemotherapy and result in substantial adverse physical, behavioral, cognitive andaffective consequences for patient. given the impact of fatigue, treatment options shouldbe routinely considered in the care of patients with cancer.