Tom Kindlon
Senior Member
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(This is a comment on an old study, from 1998, so many may not find it of much importance but wanted to post it somewhere)
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J092v04n03_06
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J092v04n03_06
Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Original Article
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Among School Children and Their Special Educational Needs
1998, Vol. 4, No. 3 , Pages 59-69
M. L. Arzomand
Community Paediatrician†
Department of Community Paediatrics, The Merton and Sutton Community NHS Trust, Community House, Fountain Drive, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 4NR, UK
†Correspondence: M. L. Arzomand, MAi-zomand@aol.com
Abstract
Objectives:
To determine the prevalence of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) in school children.
To explore their Special Educational Needs (SEN) arrangements.
To evaluate the views of their parents, the educational and medical professionals involved in the process of special education needs assessment.
Design: A postal questionnaire survey.
Setting: The Merton and Sutton Junior and High Schools.
Subjects: Pupils diagnosed with CFS.
Main Outcome Measures: Responses to CFS about special educational needs and case details.
Results: With a 53.8% return rate, 22 cases were idenlilled giving an overall point prevalence of 0.07%. Of these 22 cases, 21 were in Sutton and one in Merton. There were equal numbers of boys and girls.
Although the respondent groups generally agreed about Special Educational Needs arrangements, differences existed on home tuition and physical education (PE) at school. Parents were more against PE, 5 (71%) vs. 2 (14%) and 4 (11%) of doctors and educational staff, respectively (P = 0.001). Four out of seven parents (57%) said home tuition was necessary, while only one doctor (7%) and nine educational staffs (25.7%) agreed with this (P = 0.044).
Conclusion: The estimated overall prevalence is consistent with previous paediatric studies. Two different findings, however, emerged. The equal prevalence in boys and girls (in contrast to previous studies) and the highly significant difference of case numbers between these two neighbouring boroughs (21 vs. 1). Further research is needed for possible explanation of these differences.
Keywords
Paediatric, chronic fatigue syndrome, epidemiology