Lacerda, Eliana M, Geraghty, Keith, Kingdon, Caroline C et al. · BMC neurology · 2019 · DOI
This study looked at what factors might increase someone's risk of developing ME/CFS by comparing 269 people with ME/CFS to people with multiple sclerosis and healthy controls. Researchers found that having frequent colds or infections before illness onset, being single, having lower income, and having a family history of anxiety or neurological illness were linked to higher ME/CFS risk. The study suggests that infections may play an important role in how ME/CFS develops, which differs from multiple sclerosis.
Understanding risk factors may help identify people more likely to develop ME/CFS and provides evidence supporting the infectious trigger hypothesis, which could inform prevention strategies and guide future research into disease mechanisms. This study directly addresses inconsistencies in the literature about which factors matter most in ME/CFS pathogenesis.
This study does not prove that infections cause ME/CFS—it only shows an association. The cross-sectional design means researchers cannot establish temporal relationships or causality. Additionally, the study was limited to factors investigators chose to examine, so other unmeasured risk factors may be equally or more important.
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
Lacerda, Eliana M, Geraghty, Keith, Kingdon, Caroline C, Palla, Luigi, & Nacul, Luis (2019). A logistic regression analysis of risk factors in ME/CFS pathogenesis.. BMC neurology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-019-1468-2
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-lacerda-2019-logistic-regression,
author = {Lacerda, Eliana M and Geraghty, Keith and Kingdon, Caroline C and Palla, Luigi and Nacul, Luis},
title = {A logistic regression analysis of risk factors in ME/CFS pathogenesis.},
journal = {BMC neurology},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1186/s12883-019-1468-2},
note = {PubMed: 31699051},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lacerda-2019-logistic-regression},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lacerda-2019-logistic-regression
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