Radiotherapy-induced fatigue in Palestinian breast cancer survivors

Figures & data

Table 1. Questionnaires answers of survivors (n = 148).

No.	Item	Mean	SD
1	I feel fatigue	3.16	1.14
2	I feel weak all over	2.94	1.12
3	I feel listless (washed out)	2.71	1.12
4	I feel tired	2.82	1.21
5	I have trouble starting things because I am tired	2.70	1.19
6	I have trouble finishing things because I am tired	2.59	1.19
7	I have energy	2.48	1.37
8	I am able to do my usual activities	3.07	1.11
9	I need to sleep during the day	3.13	1.27
10	I am too tired to eat	3.47	1.16
11	I need help doing my usual activities	2.56	1.30
12	I am frustrated by being too tired to do the things I want to do	2.84	1.17
13	I have to limit my social activity because I am tired	2.94	1.27
Total fatigue		2.88	0.84

Table 2. Qualitative variables frequency distribution, percentages, and one-way ANOVA statistical analysis for fatigue in breast cancer survivors.

Participant demographic characteristics			Statistical analysis One-way ANOVA
Patient characteristic	Variable	Frequency (n%)	Mean (SD)	F (P-value)
Education	Less than secondary school	51 (34.5)	2.94 (0.75)	7.68 (0.001**)
	Secondary school – BSc	80 (54.1)	2.70 (0.76)
	Higher than BSc	17 (11.5)	3.52 (1.09)
Marital Status	Single	12 (8.1)	2.47 (0.66)	5.83 (0.001**)
	Married	111 (75.0)	2.86 (0.84)
	Divorced	16 (10.8)	3.57 (0.71)
	Widowed	9 (6.1)	2.46 (0.47)
Number of children	None	22 (14.9)	3.07 (0.83)	7.35 (0.001**)
	1–2	33 (22.3)	2.50 (0.69)
	Three or more	93 (62.8)	2.63 (0.84)
Age	20–35	10 (6.8)	3.16 (0.98)	5.29 (0.002*)
	36–50	53 (35.8)	3.00 (0.65)
	51–65	35 (23.6)	2.62 (0.72)
	Over 65	50 (33.8)	2.40 (0.69)
Duration of treatment	less than a month	38 (25.7)	2.47 (0.81)	7.22 (0.001**)
	One to three months	57 (38.5)	2.93 (0.66)
	More than three months	53 (35.8)	3.11 (0.93)

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.

Table 3. Pearson correlation coefficient between study variables and fatigue.

Variable	Pearson correlation coefficient
	R	P
Number of children	0.221	0.007**
Age	0.311	0.000**
Duration of treatment	0.290	0.000**

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).

R: Correlation coefficient.

P: P-value.

Table 4. Frequency and percentage of women experiencing different levels of fatigue.

Fatigue level	Number of breast cancer survivors	Percent (%)
Low (1–2.33)	35	23.6
Medium (2.34–3.67)	84	56.8
High (3.68–5)	29	19.6
Total	148	100

Table 5. Multivariate analysis (two-way ANOVA) for fatigue among breast cancer survivors treated with RT in Palestine.

Variable	Sum of squares	Degree of freedom (df)	Mean square	F	Significance (P-value)
Number of Children	1.387	2	0.693	1.239	0.293
Age	4.383	3	1.461	2.510	0.061
Duration of treatment	9.478	2	4.739	8.141	0.000**
Age vs. duration of treatment	6.876	5	1.375	2.362	0.043*
Error (among groups)	79.751	137	0.582
Total	1333.107	149

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.