ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2019
Prevalence, characteristics, and patterns of patients with multimorbidity in primary care: a retrospective cohort analysis in Canada.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Everyday Lives of Middle-Aged Persons with Multimorbidity: A Mixed Methods Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- General practitioner strategies for managing patients with multimorbidity: a systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative research.BMC family practice · 2020Pooled it
- Assessing the Needs of Community Mental Health Service Users with Chronic Physical Health Conditions: A Cross-Sectional Study.Community mental health journal · 2026Article
- Article
- The role of psychiatric-physical multimorbidity and continuity of care in seniors' medical emergency visits.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Role of Advanced Practice Nurses in the Care of Multimorbid and Complex Chronically Ill Young and Middle-Aged Adults in Hospital Settings-Perspectives on Experience of APNs: A Qualitative Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Finding safe harbour: reassessing 9 principles of family medicine in difficult times: Part 1 of the 10-part series, "Foundations for tomorrow".Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2026Article
- Multimorbidity clusters: translating research evidence into actionable interventions.European geriatric medicine · 2025Article
- Network-based machine learning reveals cardiometabolic multimorbidity patterns and modifiable lifestyle factors: a community-focused analysis of NHANES 2015-2018.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The evolution of comorbidities in chronic diseases among Chinese middle-aged and elderly people: Evidence from the CHARLS (2015-2020).PloS one · 2025Article
- A Canadian Call for Addressing Physical Health in Specialized Mental Health Settings.Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante · 2024Article
- Article
- Understanding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the care experiences of people with mental-physical multimorbidity: protocol for a mixed methods study.BMC primary care · 2023Article
- CHRONIC MULTIMORBIDITY OF LOW BACK PAIN OR OTHER CHRONIC BACK DISORDERS IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA.Acta clinica Croatica · 2023Article
- Understanding data provenance when using electronic medical records for research: Lessons learned from the Deliver Primary Healthcare Information (DELPHI) database.International journal of population data science · 2023Article
- Patient perspectives on primary care for multimorbidity: An integrative review.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2022Review
- Observational
- Article
- Multimorbidity.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2022Review
- Age- and Sex-Specific Differences in Multimorbidity Patterns and Temporal Trends on Assessing Hospital Discharge Records in Southwest China: Network-Based Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMultimorbidity is a complex issue in modern medicine and a more nuanced understanding of how this phenomenon occurs over time is needed.
aimTo determine the prevalence, characteristics, and patterns of patients living with multimorbidity, specifically the unique combinations (unordered patterns) and unique permutations (ordered patterns) of multimorbidity in primary care. DESIGN AND
settingA retrospective cohort analysis of the prospectively collected data from 1990 to 2013 from the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network electronic medical record database.
methodAdult primary care patients who were aged ≥18 years at their first recorded encounter were followed over time. A list of 20 chronic condition categories was used to detect multimorbidity. Computational analyses were conducted using the Multimorbidity Cluster Analysis Tool to identify all combinations and permutations.
resultsMultimorbidity, defined as two or more and three or more chronic conditions, was prevalent among adult primary care patients and most of these patients were aged <65 years. Among female patients with two or more chronic conditions, 6075 combinations and 14 891 permutations were detected. Among male patients with three or more chronic conditions, 4296 combinations and 9716 permutations were detected. While specific patterns were identified, combinations and permutations became increasingly rare as the total number of chronic conditions and patient age increased.
conclusionThis research confirms that multimorbidity is common in primary care and provides empirical evidence that clinical management requires a tailored, patient-centred approach. While the prevalence of multimorbidity was found to increase with increasing patient age, the largest proportion of patients with multimorbidity in this study were aged <65 years.
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