Abstract
Background
Previous studies have shown fatigue and depression/anxiety to be highly associated with each other. The present study seeks to differentiate between fatigue and depression/anxiety and to investigate the familiality/heritability of fatigue using sib-pairs.
Method
The GENESiS study is a questionnaire study based in the United Kingdom that includes a five-item fatigue scale and four mental health measures (GHQ-12, EPQ-N, MASQ-AA, MASQ-HPA). Fatigue data from 10,444 sibling pairs were analysed using multivariate methods and model fitting techniques to investigate the familiality/heritability of fatigue and its relationship with the other mental health measures and physical health items.
Results
Fatigue correlated highly with GHQ-12 (r=0.62, p<0.001). A principal components analysis of the fatigue scale and the GHQ-12 revealed one main component which correlated highly with mental health items, and a smaller second component which correlated modestly with physical health items. Fatigue showed a modest sibling correlation (0.09, p<0.001), and multivariate modelling revealed evidence for familial effects on fatigue that were independent of the mental health measures.
Conclusions
Fatigue showed a strong relationship with both physical illness and mental health measures. Fatigue is modestly familial and at least part of this familial factor is not shared with mental health measures.
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Williamson, R.J., Purcell, S., Sterne, A. et al. The relationship of fatigue to mental and physical health in a community sample. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 40, 126–132 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-005-0858-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-005-0858-5