Lim, Eun-Jin, Lee, Jin-Seok, Lee, Eun-Jung et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2021 · DOI
This study looked at medical records from South Korea between 2010 and 2020 to understand how many people have ME/CFS and who gets diagnosed with it. Researchers found that about 45 out of every 100,000 people are newly diagnosed each year, and roughly 58 out of every 100,000 people have the condition overall. The number of diagnoses roughly doubled over the 10-year period, with women being about 1.5 times more likely to be diagnosed than men, and cases increasing with age.
This is the first large-scale, population-level study documenting ME/CFS epidemiology in South Korea, providing evidence that the condition is increasingly recognized and diagnosed. The rising incidence and prevalence rates challenge the notion that ME/CFS is rare or declining, supporting the need for greater clinical awareness and healthcare resource allocation. These real-world epidemiological data strengthen the case for ME/CFS as a legitimate public health concern requiring improved diagnostic and care pathways.
This study does not establish what causes ME/CFS, why it is increasing, or whether the rise reflects true disease incidence changes versus improved physician recognition and diagnostic accuracy. It cannot determine whether diagnostic criteria or coding practices changed over the decade, which could account for some of the apparent increase. Claims data also cannot distinguish disease severity, track individual patient outcomes, or identify risk factors for developing ME/CFS.
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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