Jason, L A, Wagner, L, Rosenthal, S et al. · The American journal of medicine · 1998 · DOI
This study looked at how many nurses have ME/CFS by sending questionnaires to two groups of nurses and then doing more detailed evaluations on those with CFS-like symptoms. The researchers found that nurses may get ME/CFS at higher rates than the general population, possibly because of job-related stress such as shift work, virus exposure, and workplace hazards. This suggests nurses might be at special risk for developing this illness.
This study is important because it identifies nurses as a potentially high-risk occupational group for ME/CFS and highlights occupational stressors as possible contributing factors. Understanding which populations are at higher risk helps researchers identify common pathways to illness and informs workplace health and prevention strategies. The findings underscore that ME/CFS affects working professionals and has real occupational health implications.
This study does not prove that occupational stressors cause ME/CFS—it only shows an association. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causation or temporal sequence. The study also does not determine whether higher prevalence in nurses reflects true biological susceptibility, increased exposure to triggering factors, or occupational selection effects (people with ME/CFS leaving nursing).
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 →
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