Article Figures & Data
Figures
Tables
Supplemental Appendixes
Supplemental Appendix 1. Electronic Literature Search of the MEDLINE and MANTIS Databases (1980-2010); Supplemental Appendix 2. Quality Assessment of the Studies Retained in the Review, Based on a Modified (Shorter) Version of STROBE
Files in this Data Supplement:
- Supplemental data: Appendix 1 - PDF file, 1 page
- Supplemental data: Appendix 2 - PDF file, 4 pages
The Article in Brief
A Systematic Review of Prevalence Studies on Multimorbidity: Toward a More Uniform Methodology
Martin Fortin , and colleagues
Background This systematic review identifies and compares studies reporting the prevalence of multimorbidity (multiple medical conditions) in patients and suggests methodological aspects to be considered in the conduct of such studies.
What This Study Found In studies looking at the prevalence of multimorbidity, there is a great deal of variation in both methods and findings. The largest differences in prevalence, in both primary care and the general population, are seen at the age of 75 years. In addition to differing geographic settings, the studies differ in recruitment method and sample size, data collection, and operational definitions of multimorbidity, including the number of conditions and the conditions selected. All of these differences affect prevalence estimates.
Implications
- Use of more uniform methodology should permit more accurate estimation of the prevalence of multimorbidity and facilitate comparisons across settings and populations.
- Investigators designing future studies should consider the number of diagnoses to be assessed (with 12 or more frequent diagnoses of chronic diseases appearing ideal) and should attempt to report results for differing definitions of multimorbidity (both 3 or more diseases and the classic 2 or more diseases).