Millner, L, Widerman, E · Social work in health care · 1994 · DOI
This study reviewed social work journal articles published between 1985-1992 to see how the profession was addressing women's health issues. Researchers found 36 articles, most focusing on reproduction and pregnancy, with fewer articles on illnesses like chronic fatigue syndrome. The study concluded that social work was overlooking important structural factors that affect women's health, such as employment and childcare access.
This study is relevant to ME/CFS patients as it documents the historical underrecognition of chronic fatigue syndrome in professional health literature and social work discourse during the late 1980s-early 1990s. It highlights how women's health conditions, including ME/CFS, were largely absent from policy discussions and professional attention during a critical period of disease emergence. Understanding this gap helps contextualize why ME/CFS—particularly in women—may have faced delayed recognition and research investment.
This literature review does not prove that chronic fatigue syndrome was not being studied elsewhere (e.g., in medical or epidemiological journals) or that social workers were not informally engaged with CFS patients. It only describes what appeared in social work journals and does not establish causation for any health outcomes or policy gaps. The single CFS article identified does not indicate the quality or impact of that work.
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
Millner, L & Widerman, E (1994). Women's health issues: a review of the current literature in the social work journals, 1985-1992.. Social work in health care. https://doi.org/10.1300/J010v19n03_08
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-millner-1994-women-health,
author = {Millner, L and Widerman, E},
title = {Women's health issues: a review of the current literature in the social work journals, 1985-1992.},
journal = {Social work in health care},
year = {1994},
doi = {10.1300/J010v19n03_08},
note = {PubMed: 8023235},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/millner-1994-women-health},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/millner-1994-women-health
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