2017 Volume 53 Issue Supplement2 Pages S652-S655
Occupational fatigue is increasingly affecting all workplaces. The assessment of fatigue is important because it is a factor that can lead to injury at work and reduce work performance. At present, there are several instruments used to assess fatigue which can be classified into subjective and objective assessment. However, little is known about the relationships between subjective and objective measures. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the association between subjective and objective assessment of fatigue. Participants were workers who work in an oil and gas company in Thailand. They were asked to complete the Piper Fatigue Scale (PFS) which is a subjective assessment of fatigue that measures four dimensions of fatigue: behavioral/severity; affective meaning; sensory; and cognitive/mood. After completed the PFS, each participant performed the simple reaction time (SRT) and finger tapping (FT) tests which are the objective measures of fatigue using an android application. The total of 227 workers (157 males and 70 females) with a mean age of 36.35 ± 9.84 years participated in this study. The results of PFS showed that 49.8%, 47.1%, and 3.1% of the workers had mild fatigue, moderate fatigue, and severe fatigue, respectively. The mean SRT and FT rates (right and left sides) were 502.27 ± 97.16 milliseconds, 64.28 ± 8.60 (times/10 seconds) (right side), and 59.06 ± 7.71 (times/10 seconds) (left side), respectively. The results also showed that there were no associations between subjective (i.e. PFS) and objective (i.e. SRT and FT tests) measures of fatigue (p > 0.05). However, there were moderate, negative relationships between SRT and FT tests (rs = -.403, p < 0.001 (right side); rs = -.363, p < 0.001 (left side ). In addition, there was a strong, positive relationship between FT (right side) and FT (left side) (rs = .623, p < 0.001). This study analyzed the correlations between the subjective and objective measures of fatigue among workers. The findings revealed that there were no relationships between subjective and objective assessments of fatigue. However, there were moderate to strong relationship between the two objective measures of fatigue. Fatigue is related to multidimensional aspects thus, it is not easy to measure. Therefore, in order to assess fatigue both subjective and objective measures should be considered.
