A Systematic Review of Prevalence Studies on Multimorbidity: Toward a More Uniform Methodology
By M. Fortin, M. Stewart, M. Poitras, J. Almirall, H. Maddocks. Annals of Family Medicine, 2012
1,018 citations recorded by the source corpus.
PURPOSE We sought to identify and compare studies reporting the prevalence of multimorbidity and to suggest methodologic aspects to be considered in the conduct of such studies. METHODS We searched the literature for English- and French-language articles published between 1980 and September 2010 that described the prevalence of multimorbidity in the general population, in primary care, or both. We assessed quality of included studies with a modified version of the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology checklist. Results of individual prevalence studies were adjusted so that they could be compared graphically. RESULTS The final sample included 21 articles: 8 described studies conducted in primary care, 12 in the general population, and 1 in both. All articles were of good quality. The largest differences in prevalence of multimorbidity were observed at age 75 in both primary care (with prevalence ranging from 3.5% to 98.5% across studies) and the general population (with prevalence ranging from 13.1% to 71.8% across studies). Apart from differences in geographic settings, we identified differences in recruitment method and sample size (primary care: 980–60,857 patients; general population: 1,099–316,928 individuals), data collection, and the operational definition of multimorbidity used, including the number of diagnoses considered (primary care: 5 to all; general population: 7 to all). This last aspect seemed to be the most important factor in estimating prevalence. CONCLUSIONS Marked variation exists among studies of the prevalence of multimorbidity with respect to both methodology and findings. When undertaking such studies, investigators should carefully consider the specific diagnoses included and their number, as well as the operational definition of multimorbidity.
Subfields: Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Epidemiology, General Health Professions
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9ef7f24e054920e271293b06ae18d7656f3db672
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
In Epidemiology
In General Health Professions
Citations in the corpus
- Multimorbidity patterns: a systematic review. (2014, background): “[18] so that future studies are performed and/or validated in the general population or that assigned to primary care for the sake of generalizability.”
- Prevalence, Determinants and Patterns of Multimorbidity in Primary Care: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies (2014, result): “We identified a much larger number of studies (39 articles, compared to 21 articles in the most extensive review by other authors [9]).”
- The global burden of multiple chronic conditions: A narrative review (2018, background): “Prevalence of multiple chronic conditions (MCC) Prevalence estimates for MCC are highly heterogeneous with methodological differences, including the number of chronic conditions included in the count, leading to estimates that vary up to three-fold (Fortin et al., 2012).”
- Methods for identifying 30 chronic conditions: application to administrative data (2015, background): “Third, an attempt should be made to standardize definitions across studies to facilitate comparisons between populations [7,9,34,35].”
- Multimorbidity in older adults. (2013, background): “Some authors recommend a minimum number, such as 12, but do not specify whether the choice should be based on prevalence or health burden (24).”