Close, Shara, Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya, Byrnes, Joshua et al. · Frontiers in public health · 2020 · DOI
This Australian study calculated how much ME/CFS costs patients, their families, and the healthcare system. Researchers surveyed people with ME/CFS and found the total annual cost was approximately $14.5 billion, including medical visits, treatments, medicines, and lost income. The study shows that ME/CFS places a heavy financial burden on individuals and society.
Understanding the economic burden of ME/CFS is critical for advocating for research funding, healthcare policy support, and patient services. This study provides concrete evidence of the substantial costs borne by patients and the healthcare system, which can inform government decisions about resource allocation and the need for better diagnostic and management strategies.
This study does not establish causality or explain why ME/CFS costs are so high. It is based on self-reported data rather than objective billing records, which may introduce recall bias. The findings reflect Australian healthcare costs and patient demographics, so they may not apply to other countries with different healthcare systems.
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
Close, Shara, Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya, Byrnes, Joshua, Smith, Peter, Nghiem, Son, & Staines, Don (2020). The Economic Impacts of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in an Australian Cohort.. Frontiers in public health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00420
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-close-2020-economic-impacts,
author = {Close, Shara and Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya and Byrnes, Joshua and Smith, Peter and Nghiem, Son and Staines, Don},
title = {The Economic Impacts of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in an Australian Cohort.},
journal = {Frontiers in public health},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.3389/fpubh.2020.00420},
note = {PubMed: 32974259},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/close-2020-economic-impacts},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/close-2020-economic-impacts
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