IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v22y2025i2p280-d1591174.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Possible Racial Disparities in the Diagnosis of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)

Author

Listed:
  • Chloe Lisette Jones

    (Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA)

  • Jarred Younger

    (Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA)

Abstract

Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) a chronic, disabling illness with no established etiopathology. It has been indicated in some population-based studies that Black and ethnic minority populations are underdiagnosed with ME/CFS. The aims of the present study were to (1) identify the agreement between receiving an ME/CFS diagnosis and meeting diagnostic criteria, (2) identify the demographic characteristics associated with receiving a diagnosis, and (3) explore patient satisfaction with healthcare. Self-reported medical history and symptoms were collected via online survey from respondents with and without fatigue. The agreement between self-reporting an ME/CFS diagnosis and meeting the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) ME/CFS criteria or Institute of Medicine (IOM) criteria was assessed with Cohen’s kappa. Patient characteristics predicting a physician diagnosis were analyzed with logistic regression. Associations between diagnosis, demographics, and healthcare satisfaction were assessed with chi-square tests of independence. There were 1110 responses. The agreement between meeting ME/CFS criteria and reporting an ME/CFS diagnosis was fair (CDC: κ = 0.29; SE = 0.02; IOM: κ = 0.28, SE = 0.03). White respondents had 2.94 greater odds of being diagnosed with ME/CFS than non-White respondents. Having an ME/CFS diagnosis was associated with dissatisfaction with healthcare (χ 2 (3, N = 1063) = 14.17, p = 0.003). The findings suggest racial disparities in the diagnostic processes for ME/CFS.

Suggested Citation

  • Chloe Lisette Jones & Jarred Younger, 2025. "Possible Racial Disparities in the Diagnosis of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(2), pages 1-13, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:2:p:280-:d:1591174
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/2/280/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/2/280/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:2:p:280-:d:1591174. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.