The final output of work conducted by a research partnership between Guy’s & St Thomas’​ Foundation King’s College London and Outcomes Based Healthcare on defining multimorbidity within local areas has been published in BMC Family Practice!

Defining multimorbidity has proved elusive in spite of attempts to standardise definitions. For locally based studies, the definition may need to better reflect local demographic, inequality and morbidity patterns.

We aimed to define multimorbidity for an inner-city, multi-ethnic, deprived, younger population typical of many large cities. We present a process and criteria for selecting LTCs to be included within a locality-based consensual definition of multimorbidity.

Redefining multimorbidity for an urban context has many important implications for understanding the progression of LTCs. Understanding how they relate to each other within an urban context is vital. The paper also introduces research currently underway to explore potential ‘gateway conditions’ which, if managed appropriately, might potentially delay or prevent progression to other conditions.

Read the full article here: https://bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-021-01477-x