Abstract
The current investigation classified 31 people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and 44 people with idiopathic chronic fatigue (ICF) into mild, moderate, and severe/very severe categories of self reported functional impairment. Differences in sociodemographic characteristics, symptom frequency, symptom severity, and functional impairment were examined between individuals with CFS and ICF, and were examined among the three categories of functional impairment. Results indicated that there were no differences between the CFS and ICF groups in their functional impairment classification. People who were classified into the more disabled categories reported more severe symptoms, and were more likely to have scores indicating higher disability on other measures of functional status. Implications of these findings are discussed.