Prevalence

Fatigue is one of the most common presenting symptoms to a general practitioner (main complaint of 5-10% of patients and a co-occuring symptom in a further 5-10%) (1). However, this is the tip of the iceberg:

• 16% of adults report lassitude in the last 2 weeks
• at any given time, 1 in every 5 people experience unusual tiredness and 1 in 10 suffer prolonged fatigue (2)
• it can be seen at any age but less frequently in the very young and old
• women experience tiredness twice as much as in men (1)
• there is an increased incidence of chronic disease in patients presenting with fatigue than among other patients (3).

Reference:

• 1. Wilks D, Sharpe M. Fatigue. BMJ. 2002 August 31; 325(7362): 480-483
• 2. Royal College of Psychiatrists 2008. Tiredness
• 3. Nijrolder I et al. Diagnoses during follow-up of patients presenting with fatigue in primary care. CMAJ 2009;181(10)