A Description of the Current Status of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Associated Factors Among University Students in Wuhan, China 2022

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1047014

The aim of this study is to understand the development status of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome(ME/CFS) in university students, explore its influencing factors, and provide a theoretical basis for the subsequent intervention and treatment of patient with ME/CFS. A cross-sectional study was conducted among university students in a university in Hubei province.

Data were collected via online questionnaire surveys. The contents included demographic characteristics, lifestyles, disease history, depression, anxiety, sleep, ME/CFS and other associated factors. SAS 9.4 statistical software was used to analyze and estimate the effect of associated factors on ME/CFS.A total of 1826 subjects were included in the final analysis. The results showed that the prevalence of ME/CFS in university students was 6.25%. Univariate analysis showed that exercise, alcohol consumption, study, overnights, diet, anxiety, depression, and sleep quality were associated with ME/CFS (P＜0.05).

Multivariate analysis showed that overnights, overeating, anxiety, and sleep quality were independent risk factors, while learning was a protective factor. It was concluded that enough attention should be paid to ME/CFS among university students to increase knowledge and awareness about it and improve people’s ability to recognize it.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1047014/abstract

 

What are 'overnights'?

 

It sounds as if they are using ME/CFS to mean chronic fatigue. That was always the danger with changing CFS to ME/CFS without emphasising that chronic fatigue is just a symptom, not the disease.

This is just more confusion from the way the psychos redefined ME as a disease of fatigue then insisted that fatigue was always the same with CFS just being at the more severe end.

Overuse of alcohol is NOT associated with ME/CFS. There may be some people who drink too much but it is vanishingly rare.

 

I suspect that on average people with ME/CFS consume less alcohol than the general population.

By definition ME/CFS is associated with reduced activity levels, and therefor for many reduced opportunity to drink. I have not been out in the evening for a number of years, and generally can count the number of times I have been out in the daytime in situations where alcohol was available in any given year on one hand. For example in 2022 I visited a pub for lunch two times, I attended a family funeral where wine was available at the wake and over Christmas I stayed with family for two nights where wine was served at meals.

Also although we do not have reliable data on on what percentage are affected, a significant proportion of people with ME/CFS report alcohol intolerance causing them to on consume very low levels of alcohol or none at all.

I was never more than an occasional social drinker but for a number of years I have not drunk any at all.

If this study is focusing on the symptom of fatigue, it is possible or even probable that people living a lifestyle associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption or who have specific problems with alcohol will report higher levels of fatigue than average, which results in some being misclassified as having ME/CFS when their fatigue issues are rather lifestyle related.

 

That's why I strongly oppose use of the term CFS.

And I agree that consumption of alcohol is strongly negatively correlated with ME. An old survey-type study seems to indicate that most people with ME/CFS drink little to none.

 

I used to drink a lot, including after getting ME, but a few years ago (after having ME for many years) I developed an inability to drink much more than a small glass of wine a day.