• Anitha Saravanan, Prempreet Bajaj, Herbert L Matthews, Dina Tell, Angela Starkweather, and Linda Janusek.
• Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, Illinois. Electronic address: asaravanan@niu.edu.
• Pain Manag Nurs. 2024 Jun 1; 25 (3): 225230225-230.

PurposeFatigue is prevalent, problematic, and co-occurs in chronic low back pain. When left untreated, fatigue can increase depressive mood, and intensify pain burden and disability in patients with chronic low back pain. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of fatigue to depressive mood, pain severity, and pain interference in patients with chronic low back pain.Design And MethodsA cross-sectional design was used to enroll and evaluate adults (n = 67) with chronic low back pain (>6 months) during their visit to an outpatient pain clinic. Participants completed psychometric instruments for fatigue, depressive mood, pain severity, and pain interference.ResultsParticipants were primarily women (73%), White (59%), with a median age of 59 years (range 22-70 years). Multiple regression models showed significant positive associations between fatigue and depressive mood (SD: 0.025 p = 0.017) with a coefficient of 0.069; fatigue and pain interference (SD: 0.123 p = 0.010) with a coefficient of 0.652; fatigue and pain severity (SD: 0.125 p-value <0.05) with a coefficient of 0.359. After adjusting for demographic factors (age, sex, and race/ethnicity) the associations remained significant.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that fatigue is associated with greater depressive mood, pain severity, and pain interference in adults with chronic low back pain.Clinical ImplicationsAssessing the extent of fatigue and depressive mood as part of pain management may benefit patients with chronic low back, thereby reducing symptom burden.Published by Elsevier Inc.

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