Prevalence of fatigue among postgraduate trainees in the United States and Japan

Hirotaka Kato; Alfred P Burger; Ken Emoto; Reiko Sakama; Yuki Uehara; Ankur Segon; Jenny J Lin

doi:10.1002/jgf2.280

Prevalence of fatigue among postgraduate trainees in the United States and Japan

J Gen Fam Med. 2019 Sep 19;20(6):260-263. doi: 10.1002/jgf2.280. eCollection 2019 Nov.

Authors

Hirotaka Kato¹, Alfred P Burger¹, Ken Emoto², Reiko Sakama³, Yuki Uehara⁴, Ankur Segon⁵, Jenny J Lin⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine Mount Sinai Beth Israel Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York USA.
² Department of General Internal Medicine Aso Iizuka Hospital Iizuka Japan.
³ Department of General Medicine Faculty of Medicine Juntendo University Tokyo Japan.
⁴ Department of General Medicine & Infection Control Science Faculty of Medicine Juntendo University Tokyo Japan.
⁵ Division of General Internal Medicine Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee USA.
⁶ Division of General Internal Medicine Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York USA.

Abstract

Background: The difference in prevalence of fatigue among postgraduate trainees between the United States and Japan is unknown.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey using Iowa Fatigue Scale was administered on postgraduate trainees in two internal medicine residency programs in New York and five postgraduate residency programs in Japan.

Results: Of the 393 trainees, 135 (34%) completed the survey. Seventy-seven (57%) were US trainees. Both fatigue (42% vs 81%) and severe fatigue (4% vs 19%) were more prevalent in Japan (P < .01). US trainees felt more productive during work hours but less fatigued.

Conclusions: Fatigue was more prevalent among postgraduate trainees in Japan.

Keywords: fatigue; medical education; medical trainees; residency.