Moving towards fatigue management after subarachnoid hemorrhage: The interplay between fatigue, physical behavior, participation, and quality of life

Fatigue is common after a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and often has a significant impact on daily life. Therefore, this thesis investigated the relationship between fatigue, participation, and quality of life (QoL), as well as potential strategies to reduce fatigue after SAH by gaining insight into daily fatigue experience and the role of physical activity.
Four to five years after SAH, fatigue was strongly associated with poorer participation and QoL. Additionally, we found that people become more fatigued throughout the day and experience more fatigue on weekdays than on weekend days. We identified three different fatigue patterns, with most people becoming more fatigued during the day. In addition, fatigue, social support, illness perception, and cognitive impairments may affect how physically active people are after SAH. Older individuals, smokers, unemployed individuals, and those who have had a more severe SAH tend to be less physically active and spend more time sitting, which is also linked to poorer participation and QoL. Finally, people with SAH are less physically active when they are more fatigued, but they also feel more fatigued when they have been more physically active.
The insights from this research can help healthcare providers and individuals with SAH to better understand how fatigue develops throughout the day. In the future, it should be studied whether it is possible to improve physical activity by targeting the factors identified in this study, and whether this reduces fatigue.