Yang, Manshu, Keller, San, Rafiee, Parisa et al. · Health and quality of life outcomes · 2025 · DOI
Researchers tested whether a questionnaire called PROMIS Physical Function Short Form (PF-SF) works well for measuring how much ME/CFS affects a person's ability to do physical activities. They asked 173 people with ME/CFS and 161 healthy people to complete the questionnaire and found that it accurately captured the differences in physical ability between the two groups. The questionnaire appears to be a reliable and useful tool for doctors and researchers to measure physical function in people with ME/CFS.
Measuring physical function accurately is essential for understanding ME/CFS disease severity, tracking patient progress, and evaluating treatments. This study provides evidence that the PROMIS PF-SF is a reliable tool for clinical practice and research, which could standardize how doctors assess and compare physical disability across ME/CFS patients.
This study does not prove that the PROMIS PF-SF can detect changes in physical function over time (longitudinal validity) or predict future outcomes. It also does not establish whether this questionnaire is superior to other existing measures of physical function, only that it works adequately for ME/CFS populations. The study is observational and does not address causation or mechanisms underlying the physical impairments measured.
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, Manshu, Keller, San, Rafiee, Parisa, & Lin, Jin-Mann S (2025). Psychometric evaluation of the PROMIS<sup>®</sup> physical function short form 12a for use by adults with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.. Health and quality of life outcomes. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-025-02431-6
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-yang-2025-psychometric-evaluation,
author = {Yang, Manshu and Keller, San and Rafiee, Parisa and Lin, Jin-Mann S},
title = {Psychometric evaluation of the PROMIS<sup>®</sup> physical function short form 12a for use by adults with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Health and quality of life outcomes},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1186/s12955-025-02431-6},
note = {PubMed: 41053836},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/yang-2025-psychometric-evaluation},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/yang-2025-psychometric-evaluation
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.