Paul, Lorna, Rafferty, Danny, Wood, Leslie et al. · Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2008 · DOI
People with ME/CFS often walk differently than healthy people. Researchers tracked how 12 people with ME/CFS and 12 healthy controls walked, measuring their leg and ankle movements. People with ME/CFS walked slower and had different ankle movements, especially when walking at their own comfortable pace.
Gait analysis provides an objective, non-invasive measure of physical function in ME/CFS, potentially useful for monitoring disease progression and assessing treatment effectiveness. Understanding whether gait abnormalities reflect underlying neuromuscular dysfunction or adaptive responses to reduced exercise capacity has implications for rehabilitation strategies.
This study does not establish causation or determine why gait abnormalities occur in ME/CFS. The cross-sectional design cannot establish whether gait changes precede or result from the condition, and the small sample size limits generalizability. The authors note gait differences may primarily reflect voluntary reduction in walking speed rather than true pathology.
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
Paul, Lorna, Rafferty, Danny, Wood, Leslie, & Maclaren, William (2008). Gait characteristics of subjects with chronic fatigue syndrome and controls at self-selected and matched velocities.. Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation. https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-0003-5-16
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-paul-2008-gait-characteristics,
author = {Paul, Lorna and Rafferty, Danny and Wood, Leslie and Maclaren, William},
title = {Gait characteristics of subjects with chronic fatigue syndrome and controls at self-selected and matched velocities.},
journal = {Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation},
year = {2008},
doi = {10.1186/1743-0003-5-16},
note = {PubMed: 18505580},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/paul-2008-gait-characteristics},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/paul-2008-gait-characteristics
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