Fatigue-Related Changes of Daily Function: Most Promising Measures for the Digital Age

Walter Maetzler, Leonor Correia Guedes, Kirsten Nele Emmert, Jennifer Kudelka, Hanna Luise Hildesheim, Emma Paulides, Hayley Connolly, Kristen Davies, Valentina Dilda, Teemu Ahmaniemi, Luisa Avedano, Raquel Bouça-Machado, Michael Chambers, Meenakshi Chatterjee, Peter Gallagher, Johanna Graeber, Corina Maetzler, Hanna Kaduszkiewicz, Norelee Kennedy, Victoria MacRaeLaura Carrasco Marín, Anusha Moses, Alessandro Padovani, Andrea Pilotto, Natasha Ratcliffe, Ralf Reilmann, Madalena Rosario, Stefan Schreiber, Dina De Sousa, Geert Van Gassen, Lori Ann Warring, Klaus Seppi, C. Janneke Van Der Woude, Joaquim J. Ferreira, Wan Fai Ng

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Background: Fatigue is a prominent symptom in many diseases and is strongly associated with impaired daily function. The measurement of daily function is currently almost always done with questionnaires, which are subjective and imprecise. With the recent advances of digital wearable technologies, novel approaches to evaluate daily function quantitatively and objectively in real-life conditions are increasingly possible. This also creates new possibilities to measure fatigue-related changes of daily function using such technologies. Summary: This review examines which digitally assessable parameters in immune-mediated inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases may have the greatest potential to reflect fatigue-related changes of daily function. Key Messages: Results of a standardized analysis of the literature reporting about perception-, capacity-, and performance-evaluating assessment tools indicate that changes of the following parameters: physical activity, independence of daily living, social participation, working life, mental status, cognitive and aerobic capacity, and supervised and unsupervised mobility performance have the highest potential to reflect fatigue-related changes of daily function. These parameters thus hold the greatest potential for quantitatively measuring fatigue in representative diseases in real-life conditions, e.g., with digital wearable technologies. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, this is a new approach to analysing evidence for the design of performance-based digital assessment protocols in human research, which may stimulate further systematic research in this area.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)30-39
    Number of pages10
    JournalDigital Biomarkers
    Volume8
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 20 Mar 2024

    Keywords

    • Activities of daily life
    • International Classification of Functioning, disability and health Performance
    • Wearables

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