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. 2020 Aug;49(4):563-579.
doi: 10.1007/s10566-019-09543-3. Epub 2020 Jan 23.

The Prevalence of Pediatric Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in a Community‑Based Sample

Leonard A Jason  1 , Ben Z Katz  2 , Madison Sunnquist  3 , Chelsea Torres  3 , Joseph Cotler  3 , Shaun Bhatia  3
Affiliations

The Prevalence of Pediatric Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in a Community‑Based Sample

Leonard A Jason et al. Child Youth Care Forum. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Most pediatric prevalence studies of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) have been based upon data from tertiary care centers, a process known for systematic biases such as excluding youth of lower socioeconomic status and those less likely to have access to health care. In addition, most pediatric ME/CFS epidemiologic studies have not included a thorough medical and psychiatric examination. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of pediatric ME/CFS from an ethnically and sociodemographically diverse community-based random sample.

Method: A sample of 10,119 youth aged 5-17 from 5622 households in the Chicagoland area were screened. Following evaluations, a team of physicians made final diagnoses. Youth were given a diagnosis of ME/CFS if they met criteria for three selected case definitions. A probabilistic, multi-stage formula was used for final prevalence calculations.

Results: The prevalence of pediatric ME/CFS was 0.75%, with a higher percentage being African American and Latinx than Caucasian. Of the youth diagnosed with ME/CFS, less than 5% had been previously diagnosed with the illness.

Conclusions: Many youth with the illness have not been previously diagnosed with ME/CFS. These findings point to the need for better ways to identify and diagnose youth with this illness.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome; Pediatric.

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