Association between fatigue and psychological factors among undergraduate university students: a cross-sectional study

Chan, Zhi Xin (2023) Association between fatigue and psychological factors among undergraduate university students: a cross-sectional study. Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

Background and Objective: Fatigue is common among university students and can affect their academic performance and well-being. Besides, female students often reported higher fatigue levels than male students. High academic demands often lead to stress, anxiety and depression, contributing to physical and mental exhaustion. However, there are limited studies comparing gender on different types of fatigue and investigating the association between fatigue and psychological factors among Malaysian university students. The objectives of this study were to identify the prevalence of different types of fatigue and psychological factors and to compare the different types of fatigue among undergraduate students between genders. Lastly, this study also investigated the association between fatigue and psychological factors among undergraduate students. Methods: Convenience sampling was the sampling method used in the study. The cross�sectional study enrolled a sample of 363 students aged 18-26 from the University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Sungai Long. The Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-short form (MFSI�sf) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) were employed to measure fatigue and negative psychological symptoms, respectively. The statistical data were analyzed using IBM SPSS software statistics version 29.0 and Microsoft Excel. The demography data were analyzed by descriptive analysis. Spearman’s correlation analyzed the association between different types of fatigue and psychological factors. A comparison of different types of fatigue between genders was analyzed using an independent t-test. Results: In the study, 398 participants were recruited in total but only 364 participants including 64.3% of female and 35.7% of male meet the inclusion criteria and proceed to the study. The prevalence of total fatigue (-1.6% to 35.8%), general fatigue (2.4% to 13.1%), physical fatigue (0.5% to 10.3%), mental fatigue (2.2% to 11.7%), emotional fatigue (3.1% to 13.7%), vigor (6.6% to 16.2%), depression (50.0%), anxiety (59.1%) and stress (33.8%) among university students were found in this study. There was no significant difference between gender on total fatigue (MD=15.75 for male, MD=17.85 for female, p= 0.30), general fatigue ( MD=7.35 for II male, MD=7.99 for female, p= 0.27), physical fatigue ( MD=5.02 for male, MD=5.59 for female, p= 0.28), mental fatigue ( MD=6.68 for male, MD=7.09 for female, p= 0.45), emotional fatigue ( MD=8.21 for male, MD=8.51 for female, p= 0.60) and vigor ( MD=11.51 for male, MD=11.33 for female, p= 0.74). Lastly, there was a significant association between depression, anxiety and stress with different types of fatigue among university students, which are total fatigue ( r= 0.687, p< 0.001; r= 0.624, p< 0.001; r= 0.690, p< 0.001), general fatigue (r= 0.591, p< 0.001; r= 0.510, p< 0.001; r= 0.599, p< 0.001), physical fatigue ( r= 0.510, p< 0.001; r= 0.528, p< 0.001; r= 0.575, p< 0.001), mental fatigue ( r= 0.599, p< 0.001; r= 0.586, p< 0.001; r= 0.635, p< 0.001), emotional fatigue ( r= 0.547, p< 0.001; r= 0.525, p< 0.001; r= 0.579, p< 0.001) and vigor ( r= - 0.262, p< 0.001; r= -0.114, p= 0.029; r= -0.148, p= 0.05). Conclusion: In conclusion, the prevalence of total fatigue was slightly higher among university students. Emotional fatigue is the most prevalent among different types of fatigue and the anxiety prevalence is the highest compared to depression and stress prevalence. There are no gender differences in different types of fatigue. Lastly, the different types of fatigue significantly correlate with psychological factors among university students. Future studies can further discuss the development of fatigue management programs or health care services to reduce the adverse psychological problems of students. Keywords: Fatigue, Psychological factors, Undergraduate university students

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