Global prevalence of fatigue in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Fatigue is a common symptom in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Published studies of fatigue among patients with COPD have presented diverse findings that may reflect variations in research methods as well as actual population differences. Objective: To estimate the worldwide prevalence of fatigue in patients with COPD and its associated epidemiological characteristics. Methods: The Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), and China Biology Medicine disc (CBM) databases were searched for articles from their inception date through August 2024. The pooled prevalence of fatigue in patients with COPD and 95 % confidence interval (CI) were calculated using a random-effects model with Stata 15.0 software. Agency for Healthcare and Research and Quality (AHRQ) indicators and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) were used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. Results: The 25 included studies involved 6830 patients. The meta-analysis results showed a 59 % (95 % CI: 52%- 66 %) pooled prevalence of fatigue in patients with COPD. Subgroup analysis indicated that the prevalence varied significantly by region, setting, assessment tool, and publication year. Conclusions: Fatigue is a common symptom among patients with COPD worldwide. To reduce the negative effects of fatigue in these patients, clinicians should actively explore the mechanisms of fatigue occurrence and its risk factors to provide a basis for further research.