Jones, Chloe Lisette, Younger, Jarred · International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025 · DOI
This study looked at whether Black people and other racial minorities with ME/CFS symptoms are less likely to receive an official diagnosis compared to white people. Researchers surveyed over 1,100 people and found that white respondents were nearly three times more likely to be diagnosed with ME/CFS than non-white respondents, even when they had similar symptoms. The findings suggest that racial bias may be affecting who gets diagnosed with ME/CFS.
Racial disparities in diagnosis delay appropriate treatment and validate the lived experiences of underdiagnosed patients from minority communities. Understanding diagnostic inequities is essential for improving healthcare equity, ensuring equal access to medical recognition, and informing interventions to reduce barriers to diagnosis across racial groups.
This study does not prove that physicians are consciously discriminating or identify the specific mechanisms causing diagnostic disparities. It does not establish whether differences result from systemic healthcare barriers, implicit bias, differences in symptom presentation, or access to specialists. The cross-sectional design and self-reported data prevent determining causation or the temporal relationship between diagnosis and healthcare dissatisfaction.
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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