A new Danish study shows that ME patients have among the greatest levels of disability when compared to other common diseases:

[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”#E7453A” class=”” size=””]ME/CFS has the lowest health-related quality of life score when compared to cancer, diabetes, lupus, stroke, heart disease and chronic renal failure.[/pullquote]

The study surveyed 105 patients. 27% of ME patients surveyed live with severe pain everyday. Only 4% of the general population is afflicted with severe pain and 20% with moderate pain.

The EQ-5D-3L is one of the more prominent scales that are used to measure quality of life. It ranges from -0.624 to 1.000 (1 being the best and -0.624 being the worst).

ME scores as -0.29 making it approximately 15 times worse than cancer and two times worse than having a stroke.