FSS – LupusCorner https://lupuscorner.com Health Info on Lupus Symptoms, Treatments & Research Thu, 05 Mar 2020 17:00:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 https://lupuscorner.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/cropped-lupuscorner-new-profLogo-nobg-32x32.png FSS – LupusCorner https://lupuscorner.com 32 32 Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and Lupus https://lupuscorner.com/fatigue-severity-scale-fss-and-lupus/ https://lupuscorner.com/fatigue-severity-scale-fss-and-lupus/#comments Tue, 14 Nov 2017 21:27:45 +0000 https://lupus-appli-1kjf77zfuvjpc-635402343.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/?p=914 The post Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and Lupus appeared first on LupusCorner.

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Fatigue is a common lupus symptom. But, comparing fatigue over time, or between people, is difficult.

With around 80% of people with lupus experiencing fatigue, it is crucial to have a validated measure that can distinguish between different symptoms. The Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) was distinguishes fatigue from clinical depression. Clinical studies have been conducted to ensure this distinction.

The major study on the development of the Fatigue Severity Scale was conducted by Krupp, LB, et. al, and has been cited nearly 3,000 times. In the study, experimenters developed the FSS then subjected it to to tests of:

  • Internal consistency
    • Whether or not two measures that aim to measure the same construct produce similar scores
  • Validity
    • Construct validity is how well the test measure reflects the measure in the real world

What is the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS)?

The goal of the Fatigue Severity Scale is to ascertain the level of fatigue felt by a person in the last week. Because of this, fatigue scores may change over time — and they likely will for a person struggling with fatigue as a symptom of lupus.

The Fatigue Severity Scale is a 9 statement scale. A 7-step, Likert scale is used to rate each response with higher numbers representing stronger agreement by the respondent.

Calculate the scale score by averaging the responses to the questions.

 

Sounds confusing… What’s it look like?

Yup. This is one of those where it’s easier just to see it.

 

Instructions
  • Consider the past week when answering questions
  • Choose only one answer for each question
  • 1 = Strongly Disagree; 7 = Strongly Agree

 

 

How can I take the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS)?

  • Use the LupusCorner Facebook bot!
    • By using the LupusCorner bot, you can answer the 9 questions in under a minute and get your score automatically. Additionally, we can save your responses and scores for you and provide an export of the data so you can track your fatigue over time to share with your clinicians. And, we can give you reminders so you keep tracking your fatigue!
  • Use pen and paper (here’s a PDF of the FSS)

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]]> https://lupuscorner.com/fatigue-severity-scale-fss-and-lupus/feed/ 2 Lupus Fatigue and the FSS Scale Scores https://lupuscorner.com/lupus-and-fatigue-fss-scale-scores/ https://lupuscorner.com/lupus-and-fatigue-fss-scale-scores/#respond Thu, 01 Dec 2016 21:56:53 +0000 https://lupus-appli-1kjf77zfuvjpc-635402343.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/?p=1075 The post Lupus Fatigue and the FSS Scale Scores appeared first on LupusCorner.

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Tracking your lupus fatigue helps identify factors that may help or exacerbate your symptoms.

Are you tracking? In the last two weeks, over 350 people have used Facebook Messenger (to start tracking, just type: FSS) to track their fatigue using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Below, we will look at the responses to see how the LupusCorner community is doing! And, as always, when you complete the scale, be sure to track exercise, medications, and more!

Over 350 people have taken the FSS scale. Here is how the results look:

Note: the scale consists of 9 questions rated from 1 – 7 (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree). Final score is calculated by taking the average of all responses. If any responses in a given run were invalid (e.g., greater than 7, contained words), the entire response was disqualified.

Average score: 6.04 / 7

Median: 6.33 / 7

Lupus Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) Results

This is a box and whisker plot is an easy way to visualize the responses that we received. The edges of the boxes highlight the quartiles, with the line between the boxes being the median. It shows where the majority of the responses fell. The whiskers show variability outside of the upper and lower quartiles.

Data:

Q1-Minimum 4 Minimum 1.111111111
Q1 7 Q1 5.666666667
Median-Q1 -7 Median 6.333333333
Q3-Median 6.095652174 Q3 6.805555556
Maximum-Q3 -6.095652174 Maximum 7

So, how much lupus fatigue are the respondents feeling?

Hmm it does seem like quite a bit. The average scores were relatively high, considering that the Veteran’s Affairs office had noted that an average score of a person with lupus is 4.6.

How could this be? As the respondents have participated voluntarily, it is very possible, even likely, that the people most likely to respond were prone to rating their fatigue at a high level because they currently were experiencing higher fatigue. That is to say, people feeling high levels of fatigue were more likely to read the article and take the scale. It is also possible that the VA’s number is too low.

How can we tell? Be sure to continue to take the FSS scale each week an record exercise, medication habits, foods eaten, and other elements that you may think are impacting your fatigue.

 

The easiest way to take the FSS? Visit us on Facebook and us a message that says: FSS

Click here to send us a Facebook Message

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