Prevalence of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) in Korea and Japan: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract:

Background: Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a long-term disabling illness accompanied by fatigue unsolved by rest. However, ME/CFS is a poorly understood illness that lacks a universally accepted pathophysiology and treatment. A lack of CFS-related studies have been conducted in Asian countries. This study aimed to estimate and compare the prevalence of ME/CFS in Korea and Japan and conducted a meta-analysis.

Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, and KMBASE for population-based prevalence studies of the two countries and synthesized the data according to the Fukuda case definition.

Results: Of the eight studies (five in Korea, three in Japan) included, the total prevalence rate of Korean studies was 0.77% (95% CI 0.34-1.76), and 0.76% (95% CI 0.46-1.25) for the Japanese studies. The prevalence rate in females was approximately two-fold higher than males in Korean studies (1.31% female vs. 0.60% male), while the gender difference was less obvious in Japanese studies (0.76% female vs. 0.65% male).

Conclusions: Further epidemiology studies on the female ME/CFS prevalence rate between countries may be required.

Source: Lim EJ, Son CG. Prevalence of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) in Korea and Japan: A Meta-Analysis. J Clin Med. 2021 Jul 21;10(15):3204. doi: 10.3390/jcm10153204. PMID: 34361987. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34361987/

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