Parslow, Roxanne M, Harris, Sarah, Broughton, Jessica et al. · BMJ open · 2017 · DOI
This study reviewed 10 research papers about how children with ME/CFS experience their illness. The researchers found that ME/CFS causes major disruption to children's lives, affecting their ability to go to school, see friends, and plan their futures. Children struggle when doctors don't recognize or understand their condition, but they cope better when they have support from family, friends, and healthcare providers who believe their illness is real.
This systematic review is significant because it consolidates fragmented qualitative evidence about how children's lives are affected by ME/CFS, highlighting the critical need for timely diagnosis, recognition by healthcare and education systems, and holistic care. Understanding children's lived experiences can inform compassionate clinical practice and policy improvements that reduce unnecessary suffering.
This study does not establish the causes of ME/CFS, treatment efficacy, or prognosis in children. It does not prove that specific interventions improve outcomes—it only describes how children currently experience and cope with the condition. The findings reflect experiences reported in published qualitative research and may not represent all children with ME/CFS globally.
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
Parslow, Roxanne M, Harris, Sarah, Broughton, Jessica, Alattas, Adla, Crawley, Esther, Haywood, Kirstie, et al. (2017). Children's experiences of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME): a systematic review and meta-ethnography of qualitative studies.. BMJ open. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012633
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-parslow-2017-children-experiences,
author = {Parslow, Roxanne M and Harris, Sarah and Broughton, Jessica and Alattas, Adla and Crawley, Esther and Haywood, Kirstie and Shaw, Alison},
title = {Children's experiences of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME): a systematic review and meta-ethnography of qualitative studies.},
journal = {BMJ open},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012633},
note = {PubMed: 28087544},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/parslow-2017-children-experiences},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/parslow-2017-children-experiences
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