Asbring, Pia, Närvänen, Anna-Liisa · Qualitative health research · 2004 · DOI
This study interviewed 25 women with ME/CFS or fibromyalgia to understand how they try to take control of their health and interact with doctors. The women described learning about their illness, talking with caregivers, and using different strategies like being firm about their needs or sometimes stepping back from medical care to manage their conditions better.
This research highlights that ME/CFS patients are active agents developing strategies to navigate healthcare and manage uncertain diagnoses, rather than passive recipients of care. Understanding these coping and communication strategies can help clinicians recognize patient needs and improve therapeutic relationships in conditions with complex diagnostic pathways.
This qualitative study does not establish whether these strategies are effective, harmful, or improve health outcomes. The small sample and lack of control group mean findings cannot be generalized across all ME/CFS populations, and the study cannot determine causality between strategies used and clinical 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
Asbring, Pia & Närvänen, Anna-Liisa (2004). Patient power and control: a study of women with uncertain illness trajectories.. Qualitative health research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732303260682
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-asbring-2004-patient-power,
author = {Asbring, Pia and Närvänen, Anna-Liisa},
title = {Patient power and control: a study of women with uncertain illness trajectories.},
journal = {Qualitative health research},
year = {2004},
doi = {10.1177/1049732303260682},
note = {PubMed: 14768459},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/asbring-2004-patient-power},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/asbring-2004-patient-power
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