Shlaes, J L, Jason, L A, Ferrari, J R · Evaluation & the health professions · 1999 · DOI
This study created a new tool called the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Attitudes Test (CAT) to measure how people feel about ME/CFS and those who have it. Researchers designed a 13-question survey based on common negative attitudes people hold toward the illness. The tool was tested to make sure it works reliably and accurately captures these attitudes.
ME/CFS patients face significant stigma from healthcare providers, employers, and society, which compounds their suffering and can delay diagnosis and treatment. By creating a validated tool to measure attitudes toward CFS, researchers can now identify which groups hold negative beliefs, track whether attitudes improve over time, and test interventions designed to reduce stigma and improve patient care.
This study does not prove that negative attitudes actually cause harm to patients or determine which specific interventions successfully change attitudes. It only describes the creation and testing of a measurement tool—it does not measure outcomes in real-world settings or demonstrate the relationship between measured attitudes and patient health outcomes.
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
Shlaes, J L, Jason, L A, & Ferrari, J R (1999). The development of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Attitudes Test. A psychometric analysis.. Evaluation & the health professions. https://doi.org/10.1177/01632789922034400
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-shlaes-1999-development-chronic,
author = {Shlaes, J L and Jason, L A and Ferrari, J R},
title = {The development of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Attitudes Test. A psychometric analysis.},
journal = {Evaluation & the health professions},
year = {1999},
doi = {10.1177/01632789922034400},
note = {PubMed: 10623400},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/shlaes-1999-development-chronic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/shlaes-1999-development-chronic
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