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C F S  - Information International     
 

Prevalence  of  CFS/ FM

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Prevalence figures - CDC

The prevalence of CFS in the US has for many years been referred to as "half a million" i.e. 500.000, a figure resting on studies from Seattle and Wichita, two of the “Four Cities” included in the CDC CFS-prevalence project led by NIH, Dr. Reeves,  surveillance, CFS, 1997. 

 

Recently Dr. Reeves published new figures, reeves.etal07.txt, reeves.etal.07.txt  estimating that 2.54% of the Georgia population suffers from CFS, which is 6 to 10 fold higher than previous population-based estimates in other geographic areas. Very importantly Dr. Jason has commented on these figures, reeves.etal07.jason.txt. Also a Dr. P White has commented on the new figures, white07.txt.

 

2003-CFS figures from Wichita: 235 cases per 100,000, ie  0,2% of the population, reyes.etal03.pdf, suggesting the US total figure being close to 800,000 cases.  Also the figure for CFS-like ilness was studied and accounted for 2.2 million cases. The distribution according to geography did not disclose clusters, bierl.etal04.txt, bierl.etal04.pdf.  These authors also studied the functional status of the interviewed patients,  solomon.etal03.txt,  solomon.etal03.pdf.

 

The CDC-team concluded that most cases of CFS in the population are unrecognized by the medical community; persons diagnosed as having CFS may be different from persons with CFS in the general population, solomon.reeves04.txt, solomon.reeves04.pdf.

 

Prevalences for different definitions of self-reported lifetime fatigue ranged from 36.7% for any fatigue to 2.7% for chronic fatigue syndrome-like illness, furberg.etal05.txt, furberg.etal05.pdf (Data from 4591 female and male twins from the population-based Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry).

 

 

Prevalence figures and CFS Case Definition

Dr. Jason and his team discuss the impact of wording and the lack of consensus on the CFS case definition,  Jason et al., 1999.  Also from Dr. Jason’s team comes this study on the gravity of symptoms depending on the place of referral, jason.etal03.txt, jason.etal03.pdf.

 

Prevalence in Other Countries

Sweden: 6-month prevalence of CFS-like illness was 2·36%, evengard.etal05.txt, evengard.etal05.pdf.

In the Netherlands a study with GP-reporting concluded CFS prevalence figures of 112 per 100,000 as a minimum figure,  Bazelmans et al., 1999.  An editorial discusses the prevalence of chronic fatigue and CFS in the general population, bleijenberg03.pdf.  A study on the working population found prevalence of CFS-like cases, 3.6 %, huibers.etal04.txt, huibers.etal04.pdf. 

 

Incidence of fatigue symptoms and diagnoses presenting in UK primary care from 1990 to 2001, gallagher.etal04.txt.

From Iceland a prevalence of 0 - 4.9%, depending on the criteria used, is presented,  Lindal et al., 2002.
From Korea, 0.6%, kim.etal05.txt, kim.etal05.pdf and China a prevalence of 6.4%, yiu.qiu05.txt.

 

In Nigeria high prevalence figures were found, njoku.etal07.txt, njoku.etal07.pdf.

 

Adolescent CFS-like illness occurred at a rate of 4.4%, mears.etal04.txt, mears.etal04.pdf.

Jason's Prevalence Studies

CFS numbers from population studies have been reported by Dr. Jason's team of DePaul University, Oct. 1999,  Jason et al., 1999, summary,  and  Jason et al., 1999 (full paper).  These researchers find a 0.42% prevalence of CFS among random household members (i.e. 420 per 100,000), which is twice the number reported by the CDC at the time. 

Prevalence Studies FM

An Israeli study found a prevalence of 15% FM in patients from internal medicine wards,  Buskila et al., 2001.  A Spanish 2001-study found a 2.4 % FM prevalence in the general population,  Carmona et al., 2001.  FM figures in the US: Age-adjusted incidence rates were 6.88 cases per 1000 person-years for males and 11.28 cases per 1000 person-years for females, weir.etal06.txt.

 

A Japanese study in workers found 7 of 343 females (2.04%) and one of 196 males (0.51%) met the ACR criteria for FM, toda07.txt.
 


 
 

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