Trial reportThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2021
Effect of the OPTIMAL programme on self-management of multimorbidity in primary care: a randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 3 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effectiveness and Experiences of Self-Management Interventions in Adults With Multiple Long-Term Conditions: A Mixed Methods Systematic Review.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2026Pooled it
- Reporting and representation of underserved groups in intervention studies for patients with multiple long-term conditions: a systematic review.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Interventions for improving outcomes in patients with multimorbidity in primary care and community setting: a systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Cost-effectiveness of an occupational therapy-led self-management support programme for multimorbidity in primary care.Family practice · 2022Trial
- Optimization of the multimorbidity management model for older adults: a study on the mediating effect of health literacy on self-efficacy and health status.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Training needs and curricular priorities for managing multimorbidity in Spanish primary care: findings from a national exploratory online survey.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- The value of the occupational therapy workforce in primary care: A rapid review.The British journal of occupational therapy · 2025Review
- Protocol for VetASSIST: A randomized controlled trial to evaluate virtual peer health coaching for veterans with multimorbidity.Contemporary clinical trials · 2025Article
- Occupational therapy services in primary care: a scoping review.Primary health care research & development · 2023Article
- A rapid literature review on the health-related outcomes of long-term person-centered care models in adults with chronic illness.Frontiers in public health · 2023Review
- Challenges in Multimorbidity Research: Lessons Learned From the Most Recent Randomized Controlled Trials in Primary Care.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Review
- One year follow-up and exploratory analysis of a patient-centered interdisciplinary care intervention for multimorbidity.Journal of multimorbidity and comorbidityArticle
- Development and feasibility of an inter-agency physical activity and education programme for adults with multimorbidity in primary care: Activ8.Journal of multimorbidity and comorbidityArticle
- Testing the TEC-MED-Integrated Transcultural Social-Ethical-Care Model for Older People in the Mediterranean Basin: A Mixed-Method Quasiexperimental Study Protocol.International journal of integrated careArticle
- Feasibility of OptiMaL, a Self-Management Programme for Oesophageal Cancer Survivors.Cancer control : journal of the Moffitt Cancer CenterArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEffective primary care interventions for multimorbidity are needed.
aimTo evaluate the effectiveness of a group-based, 6-week, occupational therapy-led self-management support programme (OPTIMAL) for patients with multimorbidity. DESIGN AND
settingA pragmatic parallel randomised controlled trial across eight primary care teams in Eastern Ireland with 149 patients with multimorbidity, from November 2015 to December 2018. Intervention was OPTIMAL with a usual care comparison.
methodPrimary outcomes were health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-3L) and frequency of activity participation (Frenchay Activities Index [FAI]). Secondary outcomes included independence in activities of daily living, occupational performance and satisfaction, anxiety and depression, self-efficacy, and healthcare utilisation. Complete case linear regression analyses were conducted. Age (<65/≥65 years) and the number of chronic conditions (<4/≥4) were explored further.
resultsA total of 124 (83.2%) and 121 (81.2%) participants had complete data at immediate and 6-month post-intervention follow-up, respectively. Intervention participants had significant improvement in EQ-VAS (visual analogue scale) at immediate follow-up (adjusted mean difference [aMD] = 7.86; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.92 to 14.80) but no difference in index score (aMD = 0.04; 95% CI = -0.06 to 0.13) or FAI (aMD = 1.22; 95% CI = -0.84 to 3.29). At 6-month follow-up there were no differences in primary outcomes and mixed results for secondary outcomes. Pre-planned subgroup analyses suggested participants aged <65 years were more likely to benefit.
conclusionOPTIMAL was found to be ineffective in improving health-related quality of life or activity participation at 6-month follow-up. Existing multimorbidity interventions tend to focus on older adults; preplanned subgroup analyses results in the present study suggest that future research should target younger adults (<65 years) with multimorbidity.
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