Winger, Anette, Kvarstein, Gunnvald, Wyller, Vegard Bruun et al. · Health and quality of life outcomes · 2015 · DOI
This study compared quality of life in 120 teenagers with ME/CFS to 39 healthy teenagers. Teens with ME/CFS reported significantly worse quality of life overall—44 points lower on a 0-100 scale. The biggest problems were physical health impacts and difficulty with school, which were much more affected than other areas of life.
This is one of the larger studies examining quality of life specifically in adolescents with ME/CFS, a population often overlooked in research. The finding that HRQOL impairment cannot be fully explained by depression alone challenges assumptions that ME/CFS disability in teens is primarily psychological, supporting the recognition of ME/CFS as a serious physical disabling illness.
As a cross-sectional study, this research cannot establish causation or whether CFS caused the HRQOL decline or vice versa. The study does not define or assess post-exertional malaise (PEM), a core ME/CFS symptom, limiting characterization of the CFS cohort. The finding that depression does not statistically explain HRQOL differences does not prove depression plays no role—only that other ME/CFS-specific factors contribute substantially.
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
Winger, Anette, Kvarstein, Gunnvald, Wyller, Vegard Bruun, Ekstedt, Mirjam, Sulheim, Dag, Fagermoen, Even, et al. (2015). Health related quality of life in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome: a cross-sectional study.. Health and quality of life outcomes. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-015-0288-3
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-winger-2015-health-related,
author = {Winger, Anette and Kvarstein, Gunnvald and Wyller, Vegard Bruun and Ekstedt, Mirjam and Sulheim, Dag and Fagermoen, Even and Småstuen, Milada Cvancarova and Helseth, Sølvi},
title = {Health related quality of life in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome: a cross-sectional study.},
journal = {Health and quality of life outcomes},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.1186/s12955-015-0288-3},
note = {PubMed: 26138694},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/winger-2015-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/winger-2015-health-related
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.