Antcliff, Deborah, Campbell, Malcolm, Woby, Steve et al. · Physical therapy · 2015 · DOI
This study tested a questionnaire designed to measure how well people with chronic fatigue and pain pace their activities—meaning how they balance rest and activity throughout the day. Researchers simplified the original 38-question survey down to 26 questions and identified five different ways people try to pace themselves: adjusting activities, keeping activities consistent, gradually increasing activities, planning activities, and accepting limitations. The questionnaire was found to be reliable and useful for measuring pacing strategies.
For ME/CFS patients, reliable measurement of pacing strategies is critical since activity pacing is frequently recommended but poorly understood. This validated questionnaire provides researchers and clinicians with a standardized tool to assess different pacing approaches and potentially identify which strategies are most beneficial—essential information for personalizing treatment recommendations in ME/CFS management.
This study does not prove that any pacing strategy actually causes symptom improvement or worsening; it only identifies statistical correlations. It also does not determine whether different pacing themes are effective treatments—further intervention studies are needed to establish causation. The findings are based solely on patient self-report and may not reflect actual pacing behaviors or objective outcomes.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Antcliff, Deborah, Campbell, Malcolm, Woby, Steve, & Keeley, Philip (2015). Assessing the Psychometric Properties of an Activity Pacing Questionnaire for Chronic Pain and Fatigue.. Physical therapy. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20140405
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-antcliff-2015-assessing-psychometric,
author = {Antcliff, Deborah and Campbell, Malcolm and Woby, Steve and Keeley, Philip},
title = {Assessing the Psychometric Properties of an Activity Pacing Questionnaire for Chronic Pain and Fatigue.},
journal = {Physical therapy},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.2522/ptj.20140405},
note = {PubMed: 25908522},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/antcliff-2015-assessing-psychometric},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/antcliff-2015-assessing-psychometric
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