Stressful Life-Events and Fatigue in a Nonclinical Sample

There is a lack of systematic examination of the relationship between different stressor features and fatigue. Thus, we examined which features of stressors (e.g. frequency, duration, severity, valence, type) were most strongly related to fatigue levels. Eighty-nine participants completed a short fatigue questionnaire and a comprehensive stress interview. High fatigue levels were found to be most strongly related to the number of acute interpersonal stressors and chronic difficulty stressors (<6 months duration) and psychological distress, but no other stressor measure. Thus, acute and chronic stressor frequency counts might be the best measures used in future studies assessing the relationship between stressors and fatigue.