Effectiveness of Interventions For Fatigue in Longterm conditions.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Effectiveness of Interventions For Fatigue in Longterm conditions (EIFFEL)- Focus Group Study
IRAS ID
328637
Contact name
Christopher Burton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Sheffield
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
STH22558, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Reference
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Fatigue in medical conditions is common, disabling and difficult to treat. There is evidence that three types of non-drug treatment help some people with fatigue in medical conditions. These are physical exercise, psychological therapies, and body-mind approaches (e.g. relaxation, yoga etc). While there have been studies in some medical conditions, we don’t know how effective these non-drug treatments actually are in most conditions. Also, patients often feel that these treatments don’t make sense (exercise when exhausted), suggest fatigue is not real (psychological therapies), or aren't “right for me” (body-mind). This means that even if non-drug approaches are effective, and are available, people might not take them up.
We are conducting an evidence synthesis on the effectiveness of non-drug treatments for fatigue in medical conditions. In order to do that well, we need to understand how people with fatigue think about it, how they see it as similar or different between different medical conditions, and how they make judgements about what treatments are right for them.
In this Focus Group study we will ask people with fatigue and long term conditions to help us understand how much it is reasonable to generalise about fatigue from one medical condition to another. We will use this information to design and carry out the evidence synthesis.
Once we have done this, we will go back to the same people to share our findings and learn how we can best make use of them for future patients.
We will do this work by bringing together 6 different focus groups which will each meet twice in year one of the project and once in year two. Groups will have diverse membership so that we hear from people with different medical conditions and from different communities.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/SC/0292
Date of REC Opinion
24 Oct 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion