Here's the question on informal care. As one can see, it was filled in by the participant, not a family member or friend.
When one sees a figure of x number of pounds, it seems very exact. However, I would imagine people don't necessarily answer these questions that accurately - they can involve picking figures out of the air a bit. One could imagine that little biases could easily influence somebody from say saying they got 8 hours vs 10 hours help a week on average (or whatever).
I don't know whether referring specifically to "fatigue" as the cause for the need for help could affect results at all? One might think the other option is CFS (or ME) but there is also simply not specifying the illness and see how much help people got.
Again, as I think it was pointed out before, it comes back to actometers - it would have been more interesting to see their results. As well as possible inaccurate reporting, we also don't know whether people have lowered their standards/been more reluctant to look for help or, as Sam Carter suggested, some people could have been doing house work as their exercise (I know one case where this did occur with somebody in the GET group).
This was asked before the trial started, at 24 weeks and 52 weeks.In the last 6 months, have you received help from friends or relatives on any of the following tasks, as a consequence of your fatigue?
Type of help/Please circle one/Average number of hours help per week/Who provides this care?/Do they live in your house?
Child Care No Yes (circle No if you have no children)
Personal care (E.g. washing, dressing etc.) No Yes
Help in & around the house (E.g. cooking, cleaning etc.) No Yes
Help outside the home (E.g. shopping, transport etc.) No Yes
Other No Yes
Total hours
When one sees a figure of x number of pounds, it seems very exact. However, I would imagine people don't necessarily answer these questions that accurately - they can involve picking figures out of the air a bit. One could imagine that little biases could easily influence somebody from say saying they got 8 hours vs 10 hours help a week on average (or whatever).
I don't know whether referring specifically to "fatigue" as the cause for the need for help could affect results at all? One might think the other option is CFS (or ME) but there is also simply not specifying the illness and see how much help people got.
Again, as I think it was pointed out before, it comes back to actometers - it would have been more interesting to see their results. As well as possible inaccurate reporting, we also don't know whether people have lowered their standards/been more reluctant to look for help or, as Sam Carter suggested, some people could have been doing house work as their exercise (I know one case where this did occur with somebody in the GET group).