TY - JOUR
T1 - Incidence of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome in a large prospective cohort of U.S. nurses
AU - Palacios, Natalia
AU - Fitzgerald, Kathryn C.
AU - Komaroff, Anthony L.
AU - Ascherio, Alberto
N1 - Funding Information:
We wish to thank the Chronic Fatigue Initiative (CFI) of the Hutchins Family Foundation for its funding of this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IACFS/ME.
PY - 2017/7/3
Y1 - 2017/7/3
N2 - Background: The incidence of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), the rates of both under-diagnosis and over-diagnosis, and the nature of the onset of the condition have not been assessed in large studies of health professionals. Purpose: To determine the cumulative incidence of ME/CFS in a large population of health professionals, to examine the nature of the onset of the illness, and to estimate the frequency of both over-diagnosis and under-diagnosis of ME/CFS. Methods: We sent an email questionnaire to participants in the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II), a large prospective cohort of female nurses. Forty-two thousand three hundred and ninety-four women completed the questionnaire, which included the 1994 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criteria for ME/CFS. Results: One-hundred and two women (240 per 100,000 surveyed) developed an illness that met criteria for ME/CFS between 1989 and 2009. The onset of ME/CFS was gradual in 40.6%, sudden (following flu-like illness or other precipitating events) in 18.8%, followed emotional or physical trauma in 32.3%, and was uncertain in the rest. Under-diagnosis was common: only 15 (15%) of the women who met criteria for ME/CFS reported having been diagnosed. Over-diagnosis also was common: four times as many subjects had been diagnosed with ME/CFS by community doctors as actually met criteria. The distribution of symptoms was not different in comparing cases with a sudden onset to those with a gradual onset. Conclusions: In this large cohort of female nurses, we found a low cumulative incidence of ME/CFS. Over-diagnosis and under-diagnosis were high, even in this medically sophisticated population.
AB - Background: The incidence of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), the rates of both under-diagnosis and over-diagnosis, and the nature of the onset of the condition have not been assessed in large studies of health professionals. Purpose: To determine the cumulative incidence of ME/CFS in a large population of health professionals, to examine the nature of the onset of the illness, and to estimate the frequency of both over-diagnosis and under-diagnosis of ME/CFS. Methods: We sent an email questionnaire to participants in the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II), a large prospective cohort of female nurses. Forty-two thousand three hundred and ninety-four women completed the questionnaire, which included the 1994 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criteria for ME/CFS. Results: One-hundred and two women (240 per 100,000 surveyed) developed an illness that met criteria for ME/CFS between 1989 and 2009. The onset of ME/CFS was gradual in 40.6%, sudden (following flu-like illness or other precipitating events) in 18.8%, followed emotional or physical trauma in 32.3%, and was uncertain in the rest. Under-diagnosis was common: only 15 (15%) of the women who met criteria for ME/CFS reported having been diagnosed. Over-diagnosis also was common: four times as many subjects had been diagnosed with ME/CFS by community doctors as actually met criteria. The distribution of symptoms was not different in comparing cases with a sudden onset to those with a gradual onset. Conclusions: In this large cohort of female nurses, we found a low cumulative incidence of ME/CFS. Over-diagnosis and under-diagnosis were high, even in this medically sophisticated population.
KW - Fatigue syndrome
KW - chronic
KW - cohort studies
KW - cumulative incidence
KW - prospective studies
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U2 - 10.1080/21641846.2017.1323576
DO - 10.1080/21641846.2017.1323576
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85064377976
SN - 2164-1846
VL - 5
SP - 159
EP - 166
JO - Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health and Behavior
JF - Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health and Behavior
IS - 3
ER -