Collin, Simon M, Norris, Tom, Nuevo, Roberto et al. · Pediatrics · 2016 · DOI
This study found that about 1.9% of 16-year-olds in the UK experience chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)—a condition causing severe, long-lasting tiredness that lasts at least 6 months and cannot be explained by other illnesses. Girls were nearly twice as likely as boys to have CFS at this age, and young people experiencing more family stress or difficulties were at higher risk. Children with CFS missed significantly more school than their peers.
This large population-based study provides robust prevalence estimates for CFS in adolescents and identifies family adversity as a modifiable risk factor, potentially informing prevention and early intervention strategies. Understanding gender and psychosocial risk factors helps clinicians identify vulnerable youth and challenges assumptions that CFS is primarily a psychiatric condition.
This study does not establish causation—family adversity may contribute to CFS risk, but the direction and mechanism of this relationship remain unclear. The study cannot distinguish whether depressive symptoms are a consequence of CFS or a separate comorbidity, and reliance on parental report may miss cases or misclassify symptoms compared to direct clinical assessment.
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
Collin, Simon M, Norris, Tom, Nuevo, Roberto, Tilling, Kate, Joinson, Carol, Sterne, Jonathan A C, et al. (2016). Chronic Fatigue Syndrome at Age 16 Years.. Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2015-3434
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-collin-2016-chronic-fatigue-2,
author = {Collin, Simon M and Norris, Tom and Nuevo, Roberto and Tilling, Kate and Joinson, Carol and Sterne, Jonathan A C and Crawley, Esther},
title = {Chronic Fatigue Syndrome at Age 16 Years.},
journal = {Pediatrics},
year = {2016},
doi = {10.1542/peds.2015-3434},
note = {PubMed: 26810786},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/collin-2016-chronic-fatigue-2},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-25. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/collin-2016-chronic-fatigue-2
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