Breaking the vicious circle of fatigue in patients with chronic heart failure
Abstract
Fatigue is a common symptom in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Characteristics of the experience and consequences of fatigue might be unique in these patients. The authors interviewed 15 patients with CHF and analyzed focused online observations of the content discussed in an Internet patient discussion group concerning CHF using grounded theory. The results suggest that fatigue is a circular process in which the consequences of fatigue further exaggerate the experience. However, fatigue could be alleviated by restorative activities. The bodily experience of fatigue was defined as lacking strength and energy and feeling sleepy. Patients reported the mental aspects of fatigue as demoralizing and that they frequently experienced intellectual deficiency. Fatigue leads to sacrificing, which was manifested as refraining, denying oneself, and being isolated. The restoring activities included the categories involuntarily attentive, socially interactive, and mentally absorbed. Interventions aimed to relieve fatigue should focus on restorative activities.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
There is limited guidance on how to effectively treat fatigue because emotional and psychological factors play a major role in the experience of physiological fatigue.
“There is limited guidance on how to effectively treat fatigue because emotional and psychological factors play a major role in the experience of physiological fatigue. 46 , 49”
From Prioritizing symptom management in the treatment of chronic heart failure (2020) · cites this paper as [49]
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 38 · Cited by 66
- Authors
- Falk, K., Granger, B. B., Swedberg, K., & Ekman, I.
- Affiliations
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- Duke University (US)
- Venue
- Qualitative Health Research
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2007-10
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1020-1027
- ISSN
- 1049-7323 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7557
- OpenAlex
- W2100978669
- Cited by
- 66
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 3.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Qualitative Health Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Failure Treatment and Management
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Nursing care and research
- Keywords
- fatigue, chronic heart failure, patient experience, demoralization, social isolation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Chronic Disease, Fatigue, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Middle Aged, Quality of Life, Sweden
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
