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Brief Fatigue Inventory (Index)

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Purpose

The Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) was developed to quickly measure severity of fatigue in people with cancer.

Acronym BFI

Assessment Type

Patient Reported Outcomes

Administration Mode

Paper & Pencil

Cost

Not Free

Diagnosis/Conditions

  • Multiple Sclerosis

Key Descriptions

  • Consists of nine items that look at fatigue in the past that are rated on a 0 -10 numeric rating scale where 0 is no fatigue or does not interfere and 10 is bad fatigue or completely interferes with activity/work.
  • The BFI has been translated and validated in several languages (Japanese, German, Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, French) and disease groups (brain tumors, OA, RA, chronic illness).
  • BFI was evaluated in people post stroke, but because people did not complete that tool it was deemed unfeasible to use.

Number of Items

9

Equipment Required

  • Pen and pencil or computer

Time to Administer

5 minutes

Required Training

No Training

Age Ranges

Adolescent

13 - 17

years

Adult

18 - 64

years

Elderly Adult

65 +

years

Instrument Reviewers

Initially reviewed by Gail L. Widener, PT, PhD and the MS EDGE task force in the neurology section of the APTA on August 2011.

ICF Domain

Body Structure
Body Function

Professional Association Recommendation

Recommendations for use of the instrument from the Neurology Section of the American Physical Therapy Association’s Multiple Sclerosis Taskforce (MSEDGE), Parkinson’s Taskforce (PD EDGE), Spinal Cord Injury Taskforce (PD EDGE), Stroke Taskforce (StrokEDGE), Traumatic Brain Injury Taskforce (TBI EDGE), and Vestibular Taskforce (Vestibular EDGE) are listed below. These recommendations were developed by a panel of research and clinical experts using a modified Delphi process.

For detailed information about how recommendations were made, please visit: 

Abbreviations:

HR

Highly Recommend

R

Recommend

LS / UR

Reasonable to use, but limited study in target group  / Unable to Recommend

NR

Not Recommended

Recommendations based on level of care in which the assessment is taken:

 

Acute Care

Inpatient Rehabilitation

Skilled Nursing Facility

Outpatient Rehabilitation

Home Health

MS EDGE

NR

NR

NR

NR

NR

Recommendations based on EDSS Classification:

 

EDSS 0.0 – 3.5

EDSS 4.0 – 5.5

EDSS 6.0 – 7.5

EDSS 8.0 – 9.5

MS EDGE

NR

NR

NR

NR

Recommendations for entry-level physical therapy education and use in research:

 

Students should learn to administer this tool? (Y/N)

Students should be exposed to tool? (Y/N)

Appropriate for use in intervention research studies? (Y/N)

Is additional research warranted for this tool (Y/N)

MS EDGE

No

No

No

No

Considerations

Average score of the items completed. Test can be scored with as few as 5 out of 9 questions answered. Do not have any test-retest reliability data; has not been validated or tested in pwMS.

Do you see an error or have a suggestion for this instrument summary? Please e-mail us!

Multiple Sclerosis

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Criterion Validity (Predictive/Concurrent)

Multiple Sclerosis:

(Mendoz TR et al, 1999)

  • Excellent correlation with the fatigue component of the Function Assessment of Cancer Therapy (r =-0.88)
  • Excellent correlation with the fatigue subscale of the Profile of Mood States (r = 0.84)

Construct Validity

Multiple Sclerosis:

(Mendoz TR et al, 1999)

  • Scores greater than or equal to 7 indicates severe fatigue

Bibliography

Guirimand, F., Buyck, J. F., et al. (2010). "Cancer-Related Symptom Assessment in France: Validation of the French MD Anderson Symptom Inventory." Journal of pain and symptom management 39(4): 721-733.

Kim, B. R., Chun, M. H., et al. (2012). "Fatigue assessment and rehabilitation outcomes in patients with brain tumors." Support Care Cancer 20(4): 805-812.

Mead, G., Lynch, J., et al. (2007). "Evaluation of fatigue scales in stroke patients." Stroke 38(7): 2090-2095.

Mendoza, T. R., Wang, X. S., et al. (1999). "The rapid assessment of fatigue severity in cancer patients: use of the Brief Fatigue Inventory." Cancer 85(5): 1186-1196.

Murphy, S. L., Lyden, A. K., et al. (2010). "Effects of a tailored activity pacing intervention on pain and fatigue for adults with osteoarthritis." Am J Occup Ther 64(6): 869-876.

Okuyama, T., Wang, X. S., et al. (2003). "Validation study of the Japanese version of the brief fatigue inventory." J Pain Symptom Manage 25(2): 106-117.

Radbruch, L., Sabatowski, R., et al. (2003). "Validation of the German version of the brief fatigue inventory." J Pain Symptom Manage 25(5): 449-458.

Wang, X. S., Hao, X. S., et al. (2004). "Validation study of the Chinese version of the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI-C)." J Pain Symptom Manage 27(4): 322-332.

Whitehead, L. (2009). "The measurement of fatigue in chronic illness: a systematic review of unidimensional and multidimensional fatigue measures." J Pain Symptom Manage 37(1): 107-128.

Wolfe, F. (2004). "Fatigue assessments in rheumatoid arthritis: comparative performance of visual analog scales and longer fatigue questionnaires in 7760 patients." J Rheumatol 31(10): 1896-1902.

Yun, Y. H., Wang, X. S., et al. (2005). "Validation study of the korean version of the brief fatigue inventory." J Pain Symptom Manage 29(2): 165-172.