SynthesisAnnals of family medicine
Measures of multimorbidity and morbidity burden for use in primary care and community settings: a systematic review and guide.
Synthesis in Annals of family medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 328 papers, 12 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
328 citing papers in PubMed, 12 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prevalence and representation of comorbidities and multimorbidity in randomised controlled trials in sepsis or septic shock: a systematic review.Critical care (London, England) · 2026Pooled it
- The magnitude of multimorbidity in childhood: a global systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Measuring self-efficacy in U.S. older adults with chronic disease: a systematic review.Aging & mental health · 2025Pooled it
- Multimorbidity and analgesic-related harms: a systematic review.British journal of anaesthesia · 2025Pooled it
- Social determinants of multimorbidity patterns: A systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Prevalence of Multimorbidity in the Middle East: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Variation in the estimated prevalence of multimorbidity: systematic review and meta-analysis of 193 international studies.BMJ open · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Do morbidity measures predict the decline of activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living amongst older inpatients? A systematic review.International journal of clinical practice · 2021Pooled it
- Measuring multimorbidity beyond counting diseases: systematic review of community and population studies and guide to index choice.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2020Pooled it
- Do replicable profiles of multimorbidity exist? Systematic review and synthesis.European journal of epidemiology · 2019Pooled it
- Improving palliative and end-of-life care with machine learning and routine data: a rapid review.HRB open research · 2019Pooled it
- Comorbidities and depressive symptoms among older adults with asthma.The Journal of asthma : official journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma · 2022Trial
- Assessment of Comorbidity Burden and Treatment Response: Reanalysis of the SCD-HEFT Trial.Drugs & aging · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Exploring perceived access to and previous experiences with general practice and associations with health literacy in the Danish population.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Protocol for the sequential multiple assignment randomized trial to reduce food insecurity and improve adherence in patients with hypertension (SMART-FI).Contemporary clinical trials · 2026Article
- Outcome measurement for multiple long-term conditions research across health-care settings - an overview of reviews.BMC medicine · 2026Review
- Multimorbidity Trajectories Across Three National Ageing Cohorts: Early Branching States and Persistent Cardiometabolic-Musculoskeletal Profiles.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Functional Limitation and Favorable Mental-Health Self-Appraisal Among U.S. Adults Aged 50 Years or Older with Multimorbidity: A Behavioral-Science Analysis of the 2023 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
268 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeMany patients consulting in primary care have multiple conditions (multimorbidity). Aims of this review were to identify measures of multimorbidity and morbidity burden suitable for use in research in primary care and community populations, and to investigate their validity in relation to anticipated associations with patient characteristics, process measures, and health outcomes.
methodsStudies were identified using searches in MEDLINE and EMBASE from inception to December 2009 and bibliographies.
resultsIncluded were 194 articles describing 17 different measures. Commonly used measures included disease counts (n = 98), Chronic Disease Score (CDS)/RxRisk (n = 17), Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACG) System (n = 25), the Charlson index (n = 38), the Cumulative Index Illness Rating Scale (CIRS; n = 10) and the Duke Severity of Illness Checklist (DUSOI; n = 6). Studies that compared measures suggest their predictive validity for the same outcome differs only slightly. Evidence is strongest for the ACG System, Charlson index, or disease counts in relation to care utilization; for the ACG System in relation to costs; for Charlson index in relation to mortality; and for disease counts or Charlson index in relation to quality of life. Simple counts of diseases or medications perform almost as well as complex measures in predicting most outcomes. Combining measures can improve validity.
conclusionsThe measures most commonly used in primary care and community settings are disease counts, Charlson index, ACG System, CIRS, CDS, and DUSOI. Different measures are most appropriate according to the outcome of interest. Choice of measure will also depend on the type of data available. More research is needed to directly compare performance of different measures.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.