Our comment:
Stats Can numbers short by half
Statistics Canada reported last week on the size of the Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patient populations, stating 393,000 Canadians have Fibromyalgia and 343,000 have CFS. The Fibromyalgia number is short by half at least. Studies with stronger methodologies suggest more than one million Canadians have FM. And this drives policy making.
The Stats Can numbers recorded how many doctors had diagnosed the illnesses. But many doctors deny the illnesses are real, while most haven't yet learned how to diagnose or treat the illnesses, and few want FM or CFS patients because they take so much time and the physician's compensation isn't high enough. More problematically, most provinces don't have billing codes for the illnesses, making it difficult to record diagnoses. These reasons tell why the true number is higher.
Most randomized population prevalence studies elsewhere and the one conducted in Canada suggest the minimum Fibromyalgia population size is about double the Statistics Canada numbers, ranging from 700,000 to 1.2 million Canadians battling Fibromyalgia's chronic widespread pain and its associated symptoms.
Population numbers aside, the cost of FM & CFS to the Federal Government in lost taxes and for long term disability insurance payments is more than $3.4 billion dollars per year. An investment of less than one percent of this in an action plan would reduce the long term cost, as FM-CFS Canada has proposed to successive Federal Governments. The Provinces spend billions too, but poorly and without a plan. The true size of the community is important because it carries great costs.
Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are recognized by the World Health Organisation, by the USA's CDC, and even Health Canada helped develop internationally respected diagnosis and treatment guidelines. The more than one million Canadians with FM & CFS need a national awareness building campaign so that every patient and health professional knows what they can do to improve outcomes and stay off long-term disability insurance.
We encourage you to visit FM-CFS.ca to learn about these chronic and disabling illnesses, which impact the daily lives of another two million family members. We invite the media to look into this issue in greater depth.
