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. 2023 Aug 7;13:12815. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-39046-0

Table 1.

Study characteristics.

Item Number of studies (N. of data) Number of participants (mean ± SD)
Male Female No information Total
Total 57 (151) 11,805 (268 ± 407) 22,505 (417 ± 583) 34,310 (6,02 ± 869)a
   Cross-sectional study 38 (99) 7651 (247 ± 334) 14,505 (403 ± 574) 22,156 (583 ± 804)
   Longitudinal study 19 (52) 4154 (320 ± 557) 8000 (444 ± 617) 12,154 (640 ± 1010)
Severity classificationb
   Single 25 (93) 9874 17,430 12,516 39,820
   Binary 12 (21) 1908 3853 0 5761
   Trinomial 23 (37) 4011 11,770 199 15,980
Type of cancer
   Breast 24 (30) 2 14,634 0 14,636
   Urologic 12 (17) 2338 0 314 2652
   Gastrointestinal 12 (14) 1019 888 1223 3130
   Hematologic 10 (13) 2553 2190 1486 6229
   Lung 7 (8) 907 614 797 2318
   Gynecologic 4 (6) 0 3061 0 3061
   Head and neck 3 (4) 138 194 151 483
   Brain 3 (4) 30 88 355 473
   Regardless of cancer type 23 (55) 6007 9086 13,486 28,579
Cancer status
   Cancer present 44 (109) 7263 16,637 13,461 37,361
   Cancer-free 14 (26) 2542 5540 3424 11,506
   Not defined 5 (16) 3928 7202 1564 12,694
Treatment phase
   Before treatment 11 (14) 1252 2286 65 3603
   Ongoing treatment 22 (45) 3343 9007 4208 16,558
   After treatment 11 (30) 1342 3556 6868 11,766
Type of treatment
   Chemotherapy 14 (15) 2203 3765 1780 7748
   Surgery 11 (13) 240 3615 2551 6406
   Radiotherapy 11 (13) 386 2471 1678 4535
   Endocrine therapy 9 (10) 253 1418 1413 3084
   Targeted therapy 3 (3) 0 0 202 202
   Stem cell transplantation 1 (1) 57 41 0 98
   Regardless of treatment type 30 (82) 10,030 17,282 8573 35,885
   No treatment 11 (14) 1252 2286 65 3603
Assessment method
   Self-reported 56 (149) 15,793 30,725 12,715 59,233
   Physician diagnosis 1 (2) 0 2328 0 2328
Assessment toolc
   BFI 17 (29) 2227 8804 145 11,176
   CIS 7 (25) 384 594 465 1443
   EORTC QLQ-C30 5 (23) 6966 10,534 4908 22,408
   MDSAI 6 (22) 2202 4769 5593 12,564
   MFI-20 6 (19) 1414 2086 1604 5104
   FSS 4 (8) 316 186 0 502
   PFS 4 (4) 85 1306 0 1391
   Others (9 tools)d 9 (21) 2199 4774 0 6973
Continent
   Europe 25 (77) 10,666 15,110 5373 31,149
   North America 13 (38) 2658 10,935 5738 19,331
   Asia 12 (24) 1804 3730 1604 7138
   Oceania 2 (5) 321 531 0 852
   South America 3 (3) 146 315 0 461
   Worldwide 2 (3) 176 2432 0 2608
Publication year
   Until 2010 16 (39) 5377 12,301 32 17,710
   After 2010 41 (112) 10,416 20,752 12,683 43,851

aTotal number of participants based on 50 studies, while sum of participants in subgroups is larger due to coming from each prevalence data.

bSingle: severe, moderate to severe, strong; Binary: high/very high, moderate/severe, mild/moderate to intense, mild/moderate to severe; Trinomial: mild/moderate/severe, a little/quite a bit/very much, minor/moderate/severe, moderate/severe/very severe.

cCIS, Checklist Individual Strength; EORTC QLQ‐C30, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire C30; BFI, Brief Fatigue Inventory; MDSAI, M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory; MFI-20, Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory; FSS, Fatigue Severity Scale; PFS, Piper Fatigue Scale.

dCTCAE, Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Event (ver. 3); National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) fatigue screening; RSCL, Rotterdam Symptom Checklist.