by Sasha Nimmo
A recent study of Australian teenagers with chronic fatigue syndrome found CFS impacted their development of academic, cognitive and social skills. Students with CFS missed an average of 42% of classes over a term, while the control group missed 5%. The study recommends school staff be trained to understand chronic fatigue syndrome and its impact on students.
Melbourne scientists, led by Dr Sarah Knight at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, studied 39 teenagers with chronic fatigue syndrome and 28 control subjects. Researchers gathered subjective and objective measures of school functioning, plus fatigue and emotional symptoms.
Published in Frontiers in Pediatrics (Pediatric Neurology), the study examined school participation, academic performance and ‘school connectedness’ in students with chronic fatigue syndrome (pediatric definitition by Jason et al 2006) aged between 13 and 17. The authors acknowledge study may not be representative as participants were recruited from The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and required to attend the hospital in person for the academic assessment. Therefore, those who were too sick to attend were not included in the study, nor those with mild cases managed by their GP. The small sample size was also acknowledged, along with the participants being drawn from high socio-economic status families.
School absence in CFS students was an average of 42%, while in the control group it was 5%. Greater severity of fatigue was associated with lower levels of school attendance, quality of life and participation, but not academic performance. There was only a 6% difference in academic performance.
“School staff should be provided with professional development aimed at increasing their understanding of CFS and how it can impact on the school functioning of students. Given the unique needs of each adolescent, as well as vast differences across school settings, tailored and individualized school planning that addresses not only school attendance, but also strategies to minimize the impact of the illness on school-related quality of life, school participation, school connectedness, and academic outcomes, will be crucial.”
The authors said “the impact that CFS has on school functioning may place adolescents at a heightened risk of long-term maladjustment across a range of key developmental areas.”
The study was funded by the Mason Foundation and Victorian Government’s Infrastructure Grant.
Read the full paper.
3 thoughts on “School study on teenagers with chronic fatigue syndrome”
Reblogged this on Eremophila's Musings and commented:
This is a tragic illness for young people especially, and we need better informed people every where.
I have had the illness from age seven – my only noticeable symptom then was fatigue – and when l entered High School, my symptoms worsened. I developed cognitive problems and found learning and studying difficult. I found it hard to retain information. I could have achieved much more in life without the damage ME caused. Obviously children are held back with their schooling and suffer from the dreadful symptoms. Any help is appreciated.
My daughter is diagnosed with CFS, but more correctly she has ME. She had her first onset when she was 12, went into remission for some months, but it returned. She was diagnosed at 13, she is now 14. She has missed most of her schooling since mid year 7, she is now in year 9. We had to withdraw her from the local high school as she kept ‘crashing’ with severe fatigue, hot and cold flushes, dizziness, difficulty remaining upright etc. We are trying Distance Education from home, but she feels isolated and misses school dreadfully. She just wants to be normal. She suffers cognitive dysfunction at times, but by and large is still able to study, just not in a classroom environment. This is such a struggle for her and I worry she will lose hope.