Is Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) adequate to measure brain injury related fatigue?

Background: Fatigue is a common symptom in patients with acquired brain injury (ABI) related disability while its multidimensionality has never been investigated, and specifically its relationship with patients' cognitive functioning.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the validity of the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) in patients living with ABI-related disability.

Methods: Four hundred twenty-six participants divided in three different groups (ABI-related disability, physical-related disability without an ABI, and healthy volunteers with no disability) were administered the French version of the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory. We investigated the link between these fatigue measures and neuropsychological assessment in patients with ABI. Performance on this tool was compared according to the group and we calculated normative data for the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory based on healthy volunteers' performance.

Results: In patients with ABI, fatigue measures significantly correlated with neuropsychological measures of attention, memory and executive functions. We found higher scores on Mental Fatigue and Reduced Activities dimensions in patients with ABI in comparison with the patients with physical disability (p < 0.05) and healthy controls (p < 0.01).

Conclusions: The Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory appeared to be a sensitive tool to detect ABI-related fatigue, fatigue levels being higher than in patients with physical disability and in healthy volunteers. As fatigue appeared to be related to memory, executive and attentional functioning of patients with ABI-related disability who often face unemployment, its impact on vocational outcome following ABI should be further investigated.