Roberts, Deb · Patient related outcome measures · 2018 · DOI
This study looked at how to measure quality of life in people with ME/CFS, since this condition affects many different aspects of daily living in complex ways. The researchers reviewed existing tools that ask patients about their wellbeing and found that current measures don't fully capture the unique experience of ME/CFS. They explored whether a standard quality-of-life questionnaire from the World Health Organization could work for ME/CFS patients and help doctors track how well treatments are working.
Accurate measurement of quality of life is essential for understanding how ME/CFS affects patients' daily functioning and for evaluating whether treatments actually help. Without proper measurement tools, healthcare providers cannot fully understand patient experiences or track meaningful improvements, making this foundational work important for developing better patient-centered care and commissioning appropriate specialist services.
This review does not prove that any particular quality-of-life measure is definitively superior for ME/CFS, nor does it provide clinical trial data showing which interventions improve outcomes. It does not establish whether generic QoL tools are inadequate—only that a specific ME/CFS-validated measure had not yet been identified at the time of publication.
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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Primary citation
Roberts, Deb (2018). Chronic fatigue syndrome and quality of life.. Patient related outcome measures. https://doi.org/10.2147/PROM.S155642
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-roberts-2018-chronic-fatigue,
author = {Roberts, Deb},
title = {Chronic fatigue syndrome and quality of life.},
journal = {Patient related outcome measures},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.2147/PROM.S155642},
note = {PubMed: 30123017},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/roberts-2018-chronic-fatigue},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/roberts-2018-chronic-fatigue
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