Research abstract:

Background:

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a debilitating and complex disease characterised by intense fatigue and a variety of other symptoms, which are present for at least 6 months. Studies of CFS/ME in the working population are few.

Objective:

To determine the prevalence of CFS/ME-associated symptoms and their relation with occupational factors in the personnel of a security company in Bogota during the year 2016.

Materials and methods:

A cross-sectional study of the personnel of a security company utilising a questionnaire to collect data on clinical and occupational history. In the qualitative variables, we obtained frequencies and percentages and in the quantitative variables measured of central tendency and of dispersion. We determined associations between variables. We determined associations between variables using Pearson’s chi-square, Fisher’s exact test, Mann-Whitney test and an unconditional logistic regression model.

Results:

We evaluated 162 security workers. The most common symptoms of CFS/ME were unrefreshing sleep (38.3%), and muscular pain (30.2%). We found a statistically significant association between severe fatigue of at least 6 months duration with alteration in the nervous system (p=0.016) and with drug consumption (p=0.043), and between unrefreshing sleep and sleep duration between 5 and 7 hours (0.002).

Conclusion:

In the workers, the most prevalent CFS/ME symptom was unrefreshing sleep, and this was associated with a sleep duration of 5-7 hours. In this study, we could identify those workers who had probable CFS/ME and which would benefit from a medical evaluation to make a timely diagnosis.

Prevalence of symptoms of chronic fatigue/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and its relation to occupational factors in workers at a security firm in Bogota, Colombia, 2016, by Ximena Rincon; Jonathan Kerr, Diego Herrera, Milciades Ibanez , Universidad del Rosario, Colombia, 2016, MSc Thesis in Spanish