Observational studyPrimary health care research & development2022
Different definitions of multimorbidity and their effect on prevalence rates: a retrospective study in German general practices.
Observational study in Primary health care research & development, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- The association between restricted activity and patient outcomes in older adults: systematic literature review and meta-analysis.BMC geriatrics · 2024Pooled it
- Air pollution exposure and multimorbidity patterns: evidence from a national cohort study in China.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Demographic and socioeconomic determinants of adherence in digital patient-reported outcomes among patients with chronic diseases.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Robustly measuring multimorbidity using disparate linked datasets.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Asking the generalist - evaluation of a General Practice rounding and consult service.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Age, sex, and socioeconomic differences in multimorbidity measured in four ways: UK primary care cross-sectional analysis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMultimorbidity is common among general practice patients and increases a general practitioner's (GP's) workload. But the extent of multimorbidity may depend on its definition and whether a time delimiter is included in the definition or not.
aimsThe aims of the study were (1) to compare practice prevalence rates yielded by different models of multimorbidity, (2) to determine how a time delimiter influences the prevalence rates and (3) to assess the effects of multimorbidity on the number of direct and indirect patient contacts as an indicator of doctors' workload.
methodsThis retrospective observational study used electronic medical records from 142 German general practices, covering 13 years from 1994 to 2007. The four models of multimorbidity ranged from a simple definition, requiring only two diseases, to an advanced definition requiring at least three chronic conditions. We also included a time delimiter for the definition of multimorbidity. Descriptive statistics, such as means and correlation coefficients, were applied.
findingsThe annual percentage of multimorbid primary care patients ranged between 84% (simple model) and 16% (advanced model) and between 74% and 13% if a time delimiter was included. Multimorbid patients had about twice as many contacts annually than the remainder. The number of contacts were different for each model, but the ratio remained similar. The number of contacts correlated moderately with patient age (r = 0.35). The correlation between age and multimorbidity increased from model to model up to 0.28 while the correlations between contacts and multimorbidity varied around 0.2 in all four models.
conclusionMultimorbidity seems to be less prevalent in primary care practices than usually estimated if advanced definitions of multimorbidity and a temporal delimiter are applied. Although multimorbidity increases in any model a doctor's workload, it is especially the older person with multiple chronic diseases who is a challenge for the GP.
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