The BFI is a brief, simple, and easy to use tool for the assessment of fatigue in both clinical and research settings. The BFI uses simple numeric rating scales from 0 to10 that are easy to understand and easy to translate into other languages. On the BFI, severe fatigue can be defined as a worst fatigue score of 7 or greater.

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Detailed Description
Current Validation Studies
Future Validation Studies
Selected Publications

Detailed Description of the BFI

Purpose: To assess the severity of fatigue and the impact of fatigue on daily functioning

Population: Patients with fatigue due to cancer and cancer treatment

Assessment Areas: Severity of fatigue and the impact of fatigue on daily functioning in the past 24 hours

Administration:

Method: Self-report, interview, or via an Interactive Voice Response System (IVR)
Time required: 5 minutes

Scoring: A global fatigue score can be obtained by averaging all the items on the BFI

Reliability: Cronbach's alpha reliability ranges from 0.82 to 0.97

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Current Validation Studies

We are currently working with researchers from other countries to validate these foreign language versions of the BFI.

Chinese
German
Japanese
Korean

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Future Validation Studies

We would like to collaborate with investigators from other countries in validating other language versions of the BFI.

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Selected Publications

Mendoza T, Wang XS, Cleeland CS, Morrissey M, Johnson BA, Wendt JK, Huber SL. The Rapid Assessment of Fatigue Severity in Cancer Patients: Use of the Brief Fatigue Inventory. Cancer 1999;85:1186-96.

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