Prevalence of the chronic fatigue syndrome in workers of a Mexican factory of zippers

Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is characterized by persistent fatigue and unexplained to small physical and mental effort, and usually accompanied by an inflammatory symptomatic context, its course is chronic and persistent that cause functional limitation. It is an underdiagnosed entity with multiple etiologies: it may be infectious, environmental, toxic or psychological, with prevalence that ranges between 2,6% and 2,8% in the general population, its frequency among workers has been very little explored. Objective: To determine the prevalence of CFS in workers at a zipper factory in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. Methods: Cross-sectional study included a non random convenience sample of 137/152 (90%) workers in a factory zippers located in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, and who were explored in several sociodemographic, clinical and labor variables; for CFS diagnose criteria of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) 1994 were applied. Simple descriptive analysis was performed to estimate punctual prevalence. Results: We determined prevalence of 19,71% in the working population studied, no differences in proportion of the studied variables, except sex distribution (p <0.05) with female predominance. Conclusion: CFS prevalence in the group of workers studied was higher than that reported in general population. Results agree with the idea that work could contribute significantly to CFS development.