Piper Fatigue Scale (PFS)
What It Measures
The Piper Fatigue Scale treats fatigue as four different experiences rather than one. Cancer-related fatigue in particular is not simply tiredness, and the scale was built to capture the parts of it that a single severity rating misses.
Twenty-two items are each rated 0 to 10. The behavioural and severity subscale asks how much fatigue is interfering with work, school, socialising, sex, and hobbies. The affective meaning subscale asks what the fatigue feels like emotionally — pleasant or unpleasant, agreeable or disagreeable. The sensory subscale asks about the physical experience: strong or weak, awake or sleepy. The cognitive and mood subscale asks about concentration, memory, patience, and tension. Subscale and total scores all run 0 to 10.
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes: The scale is reproduced widely in research and clinical resources, and translation studies report obtaining approval from the original authors before adapting it.
Learn More: Severity bands are commonly cited as 1–3 mild, 4–6 moderate, and 7–10 severe. The full instrument also carries five open-ended questions that are not scored but give a clinician the person's own account.