Aboagye, Nana Yaw, Hinchliffe, Chloe, Del Din, Silvia et al. · NPJ digital medicine · 2025 · DOI
This review looked at studies using wearable devices (like fitness trackers) to measure fatigue in people with various chronic illnesses, including ME/CFS. Researchers found that across many diseases, reduced physical activity, more sitting time, and problems with the body's automatic nervous system (which controls heart rate and breathing) were linked to higher fatigue levels. The findings suggest that wearable devices might help doctors personalize fatigue management for individual patients.
For ME/CFS patients and researchers, this systematic review validates the use of wearable technology to objectively track fatigue—a symptom that is often difficult to quantify and understand. By identifying common patterns (reduced activity, autonomic dysfunction) across multiple chronic diseases including ME/CFS, the study supports the development of standardized digital tools for monitoring disease progression and evaluating treatment response. This could lead to better, more personalized approaches to managing fatigue in ME/CFS.
This review does not establish causation—it cannot prove that reduced activity causes fatigue or vice versa; correlation alone was measured. The review does not demonstrate that wearable biomarkers are superior to clinical assessment or self-report in predicting outcomes or guiding treatment decisions in ME/CFS. Additionally, the findings are not uniformly applicable across all chronic diseases, as biomarker strength and relevance varied significantly by condition.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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