The awareness of chronic fatigue syndrome: a comparative study in Brazil and the United Kingdom.

Objective: While in many Western affluent countries there is widespread awareness of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), little is known about the awareness of CFS/ME in low- and middle-income countries. We compared the awareness of CFS in Brazil and the United Kingdom.

Methods: Recognition and knowledge of CFS were assessed among 120 Brazilian specialist doctors in two major university hospitals using a typical case vignette of CFS. We also surveyed 3914 and 2435 consecutive attenders in Brazilian and British primary care clinics, respectively, concerning their awareness of CFS.

Results: When given a typical case vignette of CFS, only 30.8% [95% confidence interval (CI), 22.7-39.9%] of Brazilian specialist doctors mentioned chronic fatigue or CFS as a possible diagnosis, a proportion substantially lower than that observed in Western affluent countries. Similarly, only 16.2% (95% CI, 15.1-17.4%) of Brazilian primary care attenders were aware of CFS, in contrast to 55.1% (95% CI, 53.1-57.1%) of their British counterparts (P<.001). This difference remained highly significant after controlling for patients' sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics (P<.001).

Conclusions: The awareness of CFS was substantially lower in Brazil than the United Kingdom. The observed difference may influence patients' help-seeking behavior and both doctors' and patients' beliefs and attitudes in relation to fatigue-related syndromes. Attempts to promote the awareness of CFS should be considered in Brazil, but careful plans are required to ensure the delivery of sound evidence-based information.