Development and validation of a scale to measure work-related fatigue and recovery: The Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion/Recovery scale (OFER)

Objective: Various empirical studies link persistent failure to recover from acute fatigue to the evolution of chronic fatigue. However, existing fatigue measurement scales do not tend to distinguish between acute and chronic fatigue elements well, and none include a measure of effective recovery from fatigue. Methods: The 15 item Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery (OFER) scale has been developed and validated in three study populations specifically to measure work-related fatigue. Results: The OFER scale possesses robust, gender-bias free psychometric characteristics. Its three subscales identify and distinguish between chronic work-related fatigue traits, acute end-of-shift states and effective fatigue recovery between shifts. Conclusion: These studies confirm the mediating role of intershift-shift recovery in the evolution of adaptive end-of-shift fatigue states to maladaptive persistent fatigue traits. The OFER scale is suggested as a potentially valuable new tool for use in work-related fatigue research.