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MUPS make an apparence in Canada

Kati

Patient in training
Messages
5,497
(Not a recommendation)


Medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) among adults in Canada: Comorbidity, health care use and employment.
Park J1, Gilmour H1.
Author information:1Health Analysis Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.

Abstract

Based on data from the 2014 Canadian Community Health Survey and the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey-Mental Health, this study provides estimates of the prevalence of medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) in the household population aged 25 or older.

MUPS are examined in relation to sociodemographic characteristics, physical and mental comorbidity, health care use and unmet needs, labour force participation and productivity.

In 2014, 5.5% of Canadian adults-an estimated 1.3 million - reported having chronic fatigue syndrome (1.6%), fibromyalgia (2.0%) and/or multiple chemical sensitivity (2.7%).

Half (51%) of people with MUPS reported other chronic physical conditions, compared with 8% of those without MUPS.

Similarly, mental comorbidities were more prevalent among those with MUPS.

Higher health care use was observed among people with MUPS, but 25% of them reported unmet health care needs, compared with 11% of those without MUPS.

People with MUPS were more likely than those without MUPS to be permanently unable to work or to not have a job; fewer than half (45%) were employed.

Among those who were employed, 18% had missed work because of a chronic condition, compared with 5% of workers without MUPS.

KEYWORDS:
Chronic fatigue syndrome; fibromyalgia; mental disorders; multiple chemical sensitivities
 

Snow Leopard

Hibernating
Messages
5,902
Location
South Australia
"MUPS" itself is not unreasonable - given the expectation that we need to research the underlying conditions to explain them in the future.

It is on the other hand unreasonable if is used as a substitute or malingering & hypochondriasis (false presentation/reporting) or unexplained psychosomatic illness (all psychosomatic illness concepts are not based on scientific pathology, but rather speculation and hypothesis).
 

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
It would have been interesting if they had also given data for the percentages in each category who had other medical conditions. This would give a better idea of particular problems associated with so-called medically unexplained physical symptoms than comparing them with healthy people or healthy people plus non-healthy people.
 

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
The data seems to be reported in a fairly straightforward manner.

There is little or nothing problematic and what is said explicitly about medically unexplained physical symptoms.
However because they are not put in context with people with other medical conditions, the percentages may possibly seem extreme.
 

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
The percentage without a job was particularly high among people with multiple chemical sensitivity: 53%.
This looks like an error. It looks, from figure 2, like 53% of people with multiple chemical sensitivity have a job.
 

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
I think this is the only data in the text that is not in the tables or figures:
Individuals often meet the diagnostic criteria for more than one of the three MUPS disorders.1,10,11,15,16 Of those with chronic fatigue syndrome, 30% also had fibromyalgia, and 15% had multiple chemical sensitivity. Among individuals with fibromyalgia, 23% had chronic fatigue syndrome, and 13%, multiple chemical sensitivity. And among those with multiple chemical sensitivity, 9% had chronic fatigue syndrome, and 10% had fibromyalgia (data not shown in tables).
 

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
I have said before on other threads that I am suspicious about these Canadian figures in relation to the prevalence of CFS and whether everyone really has CFS.

All the patient has to say is that they had received a medical diagnosis of CFS.

A Leonard Jason study in the US found that only 9% of people had been diagnosed who satisfied CFS criteria; CDC study in the US found that only 16% of people who satisfied CFS criteria were diagnosed. These figures would suggest that a lot more than 1.6% would have CFS e.g. maybe 5-10% overall which seems too high.

It is unclear whether CFS is more common in people from wealthier backgrounds or less well off backgrounds. However it seems likely in my experience in Ireland and from what I have seen elsewhere that people from wealthier backgrounds are more likely to get a *diagnosis* for a variety of reasons e.g. they may have money to go privately, or have more confidence not to accept what a doctor is saying to them.

This study found that people from households in the lowest quintile reported the most CFS diagnoses and the percentages diagnosed decreased. This could possibly be true after diagnosis given the effect CFS could have on earning ability. However I think probably what you would get is that the competing effects might cancel each other out to an extent e.g. wealthier people are more likely to get diagnosed vs the effect CFS has on people so that the household incomes would not necessarily show the pattern they do here with the diagnosis being least common in the wealthiest and most common in the poorest.

Similarly in this study they report that the diagnosis was most common in people who did not graduate from secondary education/high school. This makes me a bit suspicious. CFS could affect the level of education achieved for a percentage (but not for a lot of other people who became ill after secondary school/high school); however I think that better educated people could be more likely to get a diagnosis.
 
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