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Abstract
Background
Activity logs involve patients writing down their activities and symptoms over 1 or more days.
Aims
This study sought to classify daily fatigue patterns among patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) using activity logs.
Method
Fatigue intensity was self-reported every 30 min in a sample of 90 patients with CFS over 1 day. A cluster analysis using fatigue intensity, variability and slope was conducted.
Results
Three clusters emerged involving patients with different trajectories. One group evidenced high fatigue intensity, low variability, and fatigue intensity stayed the same over time. A second group had moderate fatigue intensity, high variability, and fatigue intensity decreased over time. A third group had moderate fatigue intensity, high variability, but fatigue intensity increased over time. The three clusters of patients differed on measures of actigraphy, pain and immune functioning.
Conclusions
Activity logs can provide investigators and clinicians with valuable sources of data for understanding patterns of fatigue and activity among patients with CFS.