Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Basic Science

Background: Althoughfatigue is one of the most common complaints that impacts quality of life, no study have been investigated the relation between Body Mass Index (BMI) and level of fatigue. Purpose: To investigate the effect of body mass index on the level of fatigue in young adolescent. Subjects: Two hundred and twenty normal subjects from both sexes, their age ranged from 12 to 18 years old and their body mass index varied between 13 to 39.9kg/m2. Subjects were divided into five equal groups according to their body mass index; each group consists of forty four subjects, Group 1 (underweight) BMI <18.5 kg/m2 , Group 2 (ideal weight) with BMI between 18.5-24.9 kg/m2. Group 3 (over weight) with BMI between 25-29.9 kg/m2. Group 4 (obesity class1) with BMI between 30-34.9 kg/m2. Group 5 (obesity class 2) with BMI between 35-39.9 kg/m2. Methods: An Arabic version of the fatigue severity scale (FSS) was used to measure the level of fatigue in the five groups. Results: There was A negative significant correlation between BMI and FSS score in underweight and ideal weight groups (r=-0.571, p=0.000) and (r =-0.708, p=0.000) respectively, while there was A positive significant correlation between BMI and FSS score in overweight, obesity class1 and obesity class 2 groups (r=0.671, p=0.000), (r=0.390, p=0.000) and (r=0.946, p=0.000) respectively, which indicate that group 1 with the lowest BMI value and group 5 with the highest BMI value show the highest level of fatigue than other groups. Conclusion: there was a positive relationship between the body mass index and the level of fatigue in young adolescent

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