It is striking how often students report being very tired. Such extreme fatigue occurs more often in girls than in boys. Surprisingly, this appears to have nothing to do with their involvement in large numbers of extracurricular activities but with feeling anxious and depressed.
The study, which was carried out at UMC Utrecht, is published in the journal Paediatrics on Monday, June 5, 2006. The research showed that among 3460 students between the ages of 12 and 18 more than one-fifth of the girls suffered from severe fatigue compared to 6.5% of the boys. Until now it was generally assumed that fatigue in young people could be put down to lifestyle factors, such as taking part in many activities outside of school, going out often, alcohol, and parties. However, the study by psychologist and researcher Maike ter Wolbeek has shown that extreme fatigue is much more related to the degree of reported anxiety and depression. This applies to both boys and girls. What did emerge is that young people who sleep less and get less exercise suffer more from tiredness.
It is noticeable that in girls between the ages of 12 and 18, fatigue increases quite sharply with age, something that is virtually nonexistent in boys. This could indicate that female hormones – the level of which increases considerably around this time – play a role in this. This would fit with the observation that later on, girls who began to menstruate at a relatively early age reported more fatigue. The question is whether permanent fatigue is perhaps a risk factor in developing chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which occurs far more frequently in women.
Maike ter Wolbeek, who works at UMC Utrecht and the social sciences faculty at Utrecht University, studied the degree of fatigue using a questionnaire that is also used to determine the severity of fatigue in patients with CFS.
More information:
UMC Utrecht, Internal and external communication
Linda Minnen, Annette Aarts, 088 75 574 83