SynthesisPloS one2013
The prevalence of disease clusters in older adults with multiple chronic diseases--a systematic literature review.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 100 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
100 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 199 citations in OpenAlex.
- Attitudes of nursing students toward older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Costs of multimorbidity: a systematic review and meta-analyses.BMC medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Emotional distress, anxiety, and depression in South Asians with long-term conditions: a qualitative systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Pooled it
- Underlying mechanisms of complex interventions addressing the care of older adults with multimorbidity: a realist review.BMJ open · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- Community Program Improves Quality of Life and Self-Management in Older Adults with Diabetes Mellitus and Comorbidity.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Multimorbidity, Depression, and Mortality in Primary Care: Randomized Clinical Trial of an Evidence-Based Depression Care Management Program on Mortality Risk.Journal of general internal medicine · 2016Trial
- Measuring and Characterizing Psychiatric Multimorbidity Among Individuals with Mental Illness.Community mental health journal · 2026Article
- Article
- Chronic life stressors and pain incidence in adults 50 and older: a longitudinal analysis with implications for pain prevention and public health promotion.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Sulfurous thermal waters as nature-based health resources: a public health and sustainability perspective.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Longitudinal insights into comorbidity patterns and burden among middle-aged and older adults with diabetes in China: a nine-year cohort study using CHARLS.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- Real-World Wrist-Derived Digital Mobility Outcomes in People with Multiple Long-Term Conditions: A Comparison of Algorithms.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Sex-Specific Multimorbidity-Multibehaviour Patterns in Primary Care Populations.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Observational
- Complication development trajectories for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: evidence from a five-million retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in health services · 2025Article
- Insights into relationship of environmental inequalities and multimorbidity: a population-based study.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2024Article
- Resilience among older adults with multimorbidity using the Connor-Davidson scale in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging: health behaviour, socio-economic, and social support predictors.BMC public health · 2024Article
- When the Going Gets Tough: Multimorbidity and Heavy and Binge Drinking Among Adults.American journal of preventive medicine · 2024Article
- Patterns and Predictors of HIV Comorbidity among Adolescents and Young Adults in South Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
40 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
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSince most clinical guidelines address single diseases, treatment of patients with multimorbidity, the co-occurrence of multiple (chronic) diseases within one person, can become complicated. Information on highly prevalent combinations of diseases can set the agenda for guideline development on multimorbidity. With this systematic review we aim to describe the prevalence of disease combinations (i.e. disease clusters) in older patients with multimorbidity, as assessed in available studies. In addition, we intend to acquire information that can be supportive in the process of multimorbidity guideline development.
methodsWe searched MEDLINE, Embase and the Cochrane Library for all types of studies published between January 2000 and September 2012. We included empirical studies focused on multimorbidity or comorbidity that reported prevalence rates of combinations of two or more diseases.
resultsOur search yielded 3070 potentially eligible articles, of which 19 articles, representing 23 observational studies, turned out to meet all our quality and inclusion criteria after full text review. These studies provided prevalence rates of 165 combinations of two diseases (i.e. disease pairs). Twenty disease pairs, concerning 12 different diseases, were described in at least 3 studies. Depression was found to be the disease that was most commonly clustered, and was paired with 8 different diseases, in the available studies. Hypertension and diabetes mellitus were found to be the second most clustered diseases, both with 6 different diseases. Prevalence rates for each disease combination varied considerably per study, but were highest for the pairs that included hypertension, coronary artery disease, and diabetes mellitus.
conclusionsTwenty disease pairs were assessed most frequently in patients with multimorbidity. These disease combinations could serve as a first priority setting towards the development of multimorbidity guidelines, starting with the diseases with the highest observed prevalence rates and those with potential interacting treatment plans.
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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.