Yang, Tse-Yen, Kuo, Haung-Tsung, Chen, Hsuan-Ju et al. · Medicine · 2015 · DOI
This study tracked over 200,000 people for 4-6 years to see if allergies and atopic conditions (like asthma, eczema, and hay fever) increase the risk of developing ME/CFS. People with atopy were 1.5 times more likely to develop ME/CFS than those without atopy, and the risk was even higher for people with multiple atopic conditions. This suggests a possible link between the body's allergic responses and the development of ME/CFS.
This study provides population-level evidence that allergic and atopic conditions may be associated with ME/CFS development, supporting the hypothesis of immune dysregulation in ME/CFS pathogenesis. Understanding this relationship could help clinicians identify at-risk populations and may inform future research into shared immunological mechanisms between atopy and ME/CFS.
This study demonstrates association, not causation—atopy may increase CFS risk, but it does not prove that atopy directly causes ME/CFS. The mechanisms linking atopy to fatigue remain unknown. The study relies on administrative health records and does not confirm ME/CFS diagnoses with objective biomarkers, so misclassification bias may have affected results.
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
Yang, Tse-Yen, Kuo, Haung-Tsung, Chen, Hsuan-Ju, Chen, Chih-Sheng, Lin, Wei-Ming, Tsai, Shin-Yi, et al. (2015). Increased Risk of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Following Atopy: A Population-Based Study.. Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000001211
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-yang-2015-increased-risk,
author = {Yang, Tse-Yen and Kuo, Haung-Tsung and Chen, Hsuan-Ju and Chen, Chih-Sheng and Lin, Wei-Ming and Tsai, Shin-Yi and Kuo, Chua-Nan and Kao, Chia-Hung},
title = {Increased Risk of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Following Atopy: A Population-Based Study.},
journal = {Medicine},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.1097/MD.0000000000001211},
note = {PubMed: 26200644},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/yang-2015-increased-risk},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/yang-2015-increased-risk
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