Chronic Fatigue Initiative (CFI) Study
The Chronic Fatigue Initiative (CFI) is an organization created and funded by the Hutchins Family Foundation to drive wide-scale research into the underlying infectious, immunological, and toxicological causes of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). From 2011 to 2013, CFI conducted a large U.S. multicenter cross-sectional study to compare adults with ME/CFS from five geographically distinct clinical research sites with sex and geographic location (within 100 miles of the clinical location) matched control participants.
Learn more about the Chronic Fatigue Initiative
Read more about the design of the CFI Study
Study Participants
201 ME/CFS cases and 200 controls.
Available Data
Demographic and lifestyle data are currently available, in addition to questionnaire data to aid in characterizing ME/CFS. The questionnaires administered to the CFI study participants include the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Short Form Survey (SF-36), DePaul Symptom Questionnaire, Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, Brief Pain Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Depression Inventory. All data are de-identified to protect participant privacy.
Available Biospecimens
DNA and RNA from blood, plasma, serum, saliva, PBMC, urine, and tears.
The Chronic Fatigue Initiative is supported by the Hutchins Family Foundation. Additional support for data infrastructure and management was provided by the the National Institutes of Health (U24NS105535). Investigators include: Lucinda Bateman, Donna Felsenstein, David Hirschberg, Mady Hornig, Sue M. Levine, W. Ian Lipkin, Nancy Klimas, Daniel Peterson.