Chronic fatigue syndrome is a common chronic health condition, especially for women, occurring across ethnic groups. Earlier findings suggesting that CFS is a syndrome primarily affecting white, middle-class patients were not supported by our findings.

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Previous estimates of the prevalence of fatigue and chronic fatigue have derived largely from treated populations and have been biased by differential access to health-care treatment linked with gender, racial/ethnic and social class status. This study involves a community-based prevalence study of prolonged fatigue and chronic fatigue. It addresses: (1) the rate of prolonged fatigue and chronic fatigue in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 28,673 adults in Chicago; and (2) establishes the relative prevalence of prolonged fatigue and chronic fatigue across race/ethnicity, socio-economic status and gender. Univariate and multivariate statistical techniques were utilized to delineate the overall rate of prolonged fatigue and chronic fatigue in the Chicago population and its relative prevalence by gender, race/ethnicity, and social class. Findings indicated that fatigue is common in urban populations, but that prolonged fatigue and chronic fatigue occur in about 5.00 to 7.68 percent and 2.72 to 4.17 percent, respectively, of the sample of the population. Highest levels of fatigue were consistently found among women and those with lower levels of education and occupational status.

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Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) emerged as a diagnostic category during the last decade. Initial research suggested that CFS was a relatively rare disorder with a high level of psychiatric comorbidity. Many physicians minimized the seriousness of this disorder and also interpreted the syndrome as being equivalent to a psychiatric disorder. These attitudes had negative consequences for the treatment of CFS. By the mid-1990s, findings from more representative epidemiological studies indicated considerably higher CFS prevalence rates. However, the use of the revised CFS case definition might have produced heterogeneous patient groups, possibly including some patients with pure psychiatric disorders. Social scientists have the expertise to more precisely define this syndrome and to develop appropriate and sensitive research strategies for understanding this disease.