Cross-sectional study of the effects of self-efficacy on fatigue and pain interference in black women with systemic lupus erythematosus: the role of depression, age and education

Objective While fatigue and pain are pervasive symptoms in SLE, self-efficacy can mitigate their intensity and impact on patients’ daily activity. We examined the relationships of these domains and their interactions with demographics and depression in black women with SLE.Methods This is a cross-sectional analysis of data collected among 699 black women with SLE. We used validated, self-reported measures of fatigue, pain interference, symptom self-efficacy, treatment self-efficacy and depression. Linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between each outcome (fatigue and pain interference) and each predictor (symptom self-efficacy and treatment self-efficacy), and the interaction of demographics and depression.Results We found inverse associations between fatigue and each of symptom self-efficacy (slope −0.556, p