ahimsa
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
I just remembered one study which found 58% of Long Covid cases met the ME/CFS case definition. This study recruited patients via social media sites and email, not Long Covid clinics.Those studies aren't half of pwLC. They're half of pwLC who make it to an LC clinic, making them much more likely to be severely ill.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9844405/
Abstract said:This study sought to ascertain the prevalence of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) among a sample of 465 patients with Long COVID.
The participants completed three questionnaires: (1) a new questionnaire measuring both the frequency and severity of 38 common symptoms of COVID and Long COVID, (2) a validated short form questionnaire assessing ME/CFS, and (3) a validated questionnaire measuring post-exertional malaise.
The population was predominantly white, female, and living in North America. The mean duration since the onset of COVID-19 symptoms was 70.5 weeks.
Among the 465 participants, 58% met a ME/CFS case definition. Of respondents who reported that they had ME/CFS only 71% met criteria for ME/CFS and of those who did not report they had ME/CFS, 40% nevertheless did meet criteria for the disease: both over-diagnosis and under-diagnosis were evident on self-report.
This study supports prior findings that ME/CFS occurs with high prevalence among those who have persistent COVID-19 symptoms.
I'm not good at finding flaws in studies - maybe this study has a lot of errors! But thought I'd add it to the discussion.
I tried to find a thread for this study on the forum but couldn't find it. I'm probably not using the right title or keywords.