‘Like a drained battery’: fatigue, common among older people, has many possible causes – experts suggest strategies to combat it
- Fatigue is the leading reason for restricted activity in old people; it impairs mobility, and is linked to the onset or worsening of disability, and earlier death
- Fatigue management is about forming new habits around physical activity, sleep health, nutrition and emotional health
Nothing prepared Linda Johnson for the fatigue that descended on her after a diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer in early 2020.
Initially, Johnson, now 77, thought she was depressed. She could barely summon the energy to get dressed in the morning. Some days, she couldn’t get out of bed.
But as the resident of the US state of Indiana began to get her affairs in order, Johnson realised something else was going on. However long she slept the night before, she woke up exhausted. She felt depleted, even if she didn’t do much during the day.
“People would tell me, ‘You know, you’re getting old’. And that wasn’t helpful at all. Because then you feel there’s nothing you can do mentally or physically to deal with this,” she says.
Fatigue is a common companion of many illnesses that affect older adults, including heart disease, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, lung disease, kidney disease, and neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis.
It’s one of the most common symptoms associated with chronic illness, affecting 40 per cent to 74 per cent of older people living with these conditions, according to a 2021 review by researchers at the University of Massachusetts in the United States.