prevalence
Last reviewed 01/2018
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: