A Study on Pregnant Women's Fatigue

Park, Young Sook; Lee, Hae Kyung; Lee, Eun Hee; Um, Young Rhan; Kang, Nam Mi; Lee, Sook Hee; Hur, Myung Hang; Kim, Hae Won

doi:1998.4.3.429

J Korean Acad Women Health Nurs > Volume 4(3); 1998 > Article

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Women's Health Nursing 1998;4(3):429-440.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4069/kjwhn.1998.4.3.429

A Study on Pregnant Women's Fatigue

Young Sook Park¹, Hae Kyung Lee², Eun Hee Lee³, Young Rhan Um⁴, Nam Mi Kang⁵, Sook Hee Lee⁶, Myung Hang Hur⁷, Hae Won Kim⁸

¹College of Nursing, Seoul National Univ, Seoul, Korea
²Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, Kangwon National Univ, Gangneung, Korea
³Department of Nursing, Wonju Junior College, Wonju, Korea
⁴Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang Univ, Asan, Korea
⁵Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, Konkuk Univ, Seoul, Korea
⁶Department of Nursing, Seokang Junior College, Seoul, Korea
⁷Department of Nursing, Kimchun Junior College, Kimchun, Korea
⁸Department of Nursing, Kwandong Univ, Gangneung, Korea

Abstract

A survey was conducted to examine the fatigue and the related factors in pregnancy. 426 pregnant women were recruited from antenatal clinic at 8 hospital from November 1, 1997 to January 1, 1998. Fatigue was measured by the Modification of the Fatigue Symptoms Checklist(MFSC) developed by the Industrial Fatigue Research Committee of the Japanese Association of Industrial health(Yoshitake, 1978). The MFSC consisted of 34 items with 4-point Likert scale. Minor discomfort during pregnancy was measured using a 14-item checklist with 4-point Likert scale. The data were analyzed by percentage, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation. The major findings of study were as follows : 1. The average fatigue score during pregnacy was 63.02 and the average minor discomfort score was 26.92. 2. The fatigue score of nullipara was significantly lower than that of mutipara. There was a significant difference of fatigue score between pregnant women with conjugal family and those with extended family. The fatigue score during lst trimester was the highest in comparison with that of 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy. 3. The fatigue score of pregnant women who worked for house-keeping only was significantly lower than that of pregnant women who worked partially or did not work for house-keeping. 4. There were significant correlations among each type of measure of fatigue and discomfort. Fatigue was the most common symptom during pregnancy and related to type of family, house-keeping work, and parity. Nursing intervention such as self-car, relaxation, and nutrition would be developed to manage fatigue problem in pregnancy.

Key Words: Fatigue; Pregnancy