Weigel, Breanna, Inderyas, Maira, Eaton-Fitch, Natalie et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2025 · DOI
This review looked at 16 research studies comparing how ME/CFS and long COVID affect people's quality of life compared to healthy people. The findings show that both conditions severely impact physical health, daily activities, work, and pain levels. People with these illnesses struggle significantly more than healthy individuals across all areas of life, highlighting the urgent need for better support services and disability recognition.
This systematic review provides robust evidence that ME/CFS and long COVID cause comparable, profound disability across multiple life domains, strengthening the case for policy reform and equitable access to multidisciplinary care and social support services. The findings directly support advocacy for recognition of these conditions' disabling nature and the urgent need for appropriate healthcare policies.
This review does not establish causative mechanisms underlying quality-of-life impairment, nor does it identify which specific symptoms drive the greatest disability burden. It cannot compare long COVID and ME/CFS outcomes directly due to inconsistent measurement tools across studies, and it does not predict individual prognosis or recovery trajectories.
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
Weigel, Breanna, Inderyas, Maira, Eaton-Fitch, Natalie, Thapaliya, Kiran, & Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya (2025). Health-related quality of life in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Post COVID-19 Condition: a systematic review.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-025-06131-z
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-weigel-2025-health-related,
author = {Weigel, Breanna and Inderyas, Maira and Eaton-Fitch, Natalie and Thapaliya, Kiran and Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya},
title = {Health-related quality of life in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Post COVID-19 Condition: a systematic review.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-025-06131-z},
note = {PubMed: 40075382},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/weigel-2025-health-related},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/weigel-2025-health-related
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