April 25, at 16:00h, Kuni Vergauwen will defend her PhD thesis titled "𝗣𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵-𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗰 𝗳𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗼𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘀" at Universiteit Maastricht.
💻 Watch the video of the PhD defence ceremony here: https://lnkd.in/eWVJfstz
📘 Link to thesis: https://lnkd.in/eC7ic4yy
**𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗬** Chronic fatigue and pain are prevalent symptoms in the adult general population (approximately >20%), debilitating in nature and often co-occurring in various chronic conditions. Both symptoms have been found to negatively affect health-related quality of life (HRQOL), one of the primary outcomes of healthcare and rehabilitation. HRQOL is seen as a comprehensive concept that can be influenced by biological factors, such as fatigue and pain, psychological as well as social factors. Despite the established high prevalence and negative effects of fatigue, it is not always taken into account in clinical research on chronic pain, and its importance is frequently overlooked in clinical practice. This thesis is therefore interested in the impact of chronic fatigue in patients who also experience chronic pain.
Fatigue is proposed as a transdiagnostic rather than a disease-specific symptom. To explore this hypothesis, two distinct patient populations experiencing chronic fatigue and pain were included in this doctoral thesis, patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and patients with multiple osteochondromas (MO). Because HRQOL is an important health care outcome, this doctoral thesis is centered around the exploration of diseasespecific and transdiagnostic bio-, psycho-, social determinants of HRQOL in patients with chronic fatigue and pain, and specifically taking the physical activity level into account due to its established positive relationship with health in the general population.
Promotores: Prof. dr. Mira Meeus, Prof. dr. Rob Smeets
Co-promotor: Dr. Ivan Huijnen
#MaastrichtUniversity #CAPHRI #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #Oseochondromas