McManimen, Stephanie L, Devendorf, Andrew R, Brown, Abigail A et al. · Fatigue : biomedicine, health & behavior · 2016 · DOI
This study examined whether people with ME/CFS die earlier than the general population. Researchers gathered information about 56 people with ME/CFS who had passed away by asking their family members and caregivers. The findings suggest that people with ME/CFS in this group died several years earlier on average than people in the broader U.S. population, particularly from heart-related causes.
Understanding mortality patterns in ME/CFS is critical for patient care, clinical management, and advocating for research funding. This study addresses a significant gap in the literature and raises important questions about whether ME/CFS increases premature death risk—information that could guide clinical surveillance and preventive interventions.
This study does not establish that ME/CFS directly causes earlier death, as it cannot determine whether mortality differences result from the disease itself, comorbidities, reduced healthcare access, or other factors. The small sample size and over-representation of severely ill patients limit generalizability, and findings should not be assumed to represent all people with ME/CFS. The study is observational and cannot establish causal mechanisms for the observed age-of-death differences.
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
McManimen, Stephanie L, Devendorf, Andrew R, Brown, Abigail A, Moore, Billie C, Moore, James H, & Jason, Leonard A (2016). Mortality in Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. Fatigue : biomedicine, health & behavior. https://doi.org/10.1080/21641846.2016.1236588
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-mcmanimen-2016-mortality-patients,
author = {McManimen, Stephanie L and Devendorf, Andrew R and Brown, Abigail A and Moore, Billie C and Moore, James H and Jason, Leonard A},
title = {Mortality in Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {Fatigue : biomedicine, health & behavior},
year = {2016},
doi = {10.1080/21641846.2016.1236588},
note = {PubMed: 28070451},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/mcmanimen-2016-mortality-patients},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/mcmanimen-2016-mortality-patients
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