Consensus Statements: Analyzing a New Model to Evaluate Fatigue in Children with Cancer

Abstract

FATIGUE IN PEDIATRIC ONCOLOGYpatients had not been described in the literature before the Fatigue Initiative in Research and Education of the Oncology Nursing Society (Haberman, 1998). Fatigue has been described in adults, and measures have been developed to evaluate fatigue in adults (Irvine, Vicent, Bubela, Thompson, & Graydon, 1991; Irvine, Vicent, Graydon, Bubela, & Thompson, 1994; Mock, 1998; Mock, et aI., 1998; Pickard-Holey, 1991; Piper, Dibble, Dodd, Weiss, Slaughter, & Paul, 1998; Winningham, et aI., 1994), but the question of whether fatigue is present in pediatric oncology patients and the degree to which it parallels the fatigue experience in adult cancer patients had not been addressed. A research team at two sites was granted a clinical scholars award to describe fatigue in children from the perspective of children. A preconference workshop at the Association of Pediatric Oncology Nursing's 23rd Annual National Conference, held in 1999, considered the issue of cancer-related fa-