Validation Study of the Korean Version of the Brief Fatigue Inventory

The goal of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI-K). One hundred seventy-eight cancer patients and the same number of age- and sex-matched control subjects completed the BFI-K, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 (EORTC QLQ-C30), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and a Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the BFI-K was 0.956 in the cancer patient group and 0.955 in the control group. The global score and nine of the single item scores for the BFI-K were significantly correlated with the fatigue and global health status/QoL subscale of the EORTC QLQ-C30, BDI, and BPI (coefficient range 0.38-0.66). Discriminant validity showed that BFI-K could distinguish significant differences of performance status between subgroups of patients, and between the cancer patient group and the control group, as expected. Our study has shown that the BFI-K is a reliable, valid self-rating instrument in terms of its psychometric properties.