Similä, Wenche Ann, Rø, Torstein Baade, Nøst, Torunn Hatlen · Frontiers in pediatrics · 2021 · DOI
This study asked teachers, counselors, and school nurses about their experiences helping students with ME/CFS stay in school and continue their education. The researchers found that it was harder to help these students before they received an official diagnosis, but things improved when schools worked together as a team, communicated well with families, and used digital learning tools.
This study highlights critical gaps in school support systems for ME/CFS students and identifies practical, evidence-based approaches that educators can implement. Understanding barriers and facilitators to educational adaptation may help prevent academic and social losses in young people with ME/CFS, an often-unrecognized disabling condition in school settings.
This qualitative study does not establish causal relationships or measure intervention outcomes; it reflects reported experiences rather than objective data on whether specific adaptations actually improved student outcomes. The findings are not generalizable beyond the participating schools and may not represent all school contexts or geographic regions.
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
Similä, Wenche Ann, Rø, Torstein Baade, & Nøst, Torunn Hatlen (2021). Experiences Among School Personnel and School Nurses on Educational Adaptations for Students With CFS/ME: A Qualitative Interview Study.. Frontiers in pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.756963
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-simil-2021-experiences-among,
author = {Similä, Wenche Ann and Rø, Torstein Baade and Nøst, Torunn Hatlen},
title = {Experiences Among School Personnel and School Nurses on Educational Adaptations for Students With CFS/ME: A Qualitative Interview Study.},
journal = {Frontiers in pediatrics},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.3389/fped.2021.756963},
note = {PubMed: 34858906},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/simil-2021-experiences-among},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/simil-2021-experiences-among
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.