Factors related to fatigue after paediatric acquired brain injury (ABI)

Objective: To assess the degree of fatigue in children and youth after traumatic and non-traumatic brain injury (TBI and NTBI) and related factors.
Method: Follow-up study including patients with a hospital-based diagnosis of acquired brain injury (ABI), aged 4–20 years at onset and their parents. Parents and children (dependent on age) completed the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ Multidimensional Fatigue Scale (PedsQL™ MFS), which measures general fatigue (GF), sleep/rest fatigue (SRF) and cognitive fatigue (CF). Additional assessments included the Child & Family Follow-up Survey (CFFS) and PedsQL™ 4.0 General Core Scales and sociodemographic and disease characteristics.
Results: Eighty-eight parents completed the PedsQL™ MFS 24–30 months after diagnosis, with 49/88 patients (56%) completing the child version. The median age of the patients was 11 years (interquartile range [IQR] = 7). There were 69 patients with TBI (16% moderate/severe TBI) and 19 patients with NTBI (16% moderate/severe NTBI). The median parent-reported and child-reported PedsQL™ MFS Total Scale Scores were 76.5 (SD = 16.4) and 78.5 (12.9), respectively (Spearman r = 0.450, p = 0.001). Apart from NTBI, increasing age and a single-parent household were significantly associated with more fatigue according to the parent-reported PedsQL™ MFS Total Score (and/or one or more sub-scale scores).
Conclusion: Two years after onset, in particular, the parent-reported fatigue after NTBI was considerable. Moreover, older children and children from a single-parent household were found to have higher fatigue levels.