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The DOI matches its Crossref record; 35 of the 35 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Defining and measuring multimorbidity: a systematic review of systematic reviews

Open access
Johnston, Marjorie C, Crilly, Michael, Black, Corri, Prescott, Gordon J, Mercer, Stewart W·2019·European Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Background: Multimorbidity, the coexistence of multiple health conditions, is a growing public health challenge. Research and intervention development are hampered by the lack of consensus regarding defining and measuring multimorbidity. The aim of this systematic review was to pool the findings of systematic reviews examining definitions and measures of multimorbidity. Methods: Medline, Embase, PubMed and Cochrane were searched from database inception to February 2017. Two authors independently screened titles, abstracts and full texts and extracted data from the included papers. Disagreements were resolved with a third author. Reviews were quality assessed. Results: Of six reviews, two focussed on definitions and four on measures. Multimorbidity was commonly defined as the presence of multiple diseases or conditions, often with a cut-off of two or more. One review developed a holistic definition including biopsychosocial and somatic factors as well as disease. Reviews recommended using measures validated for the outcome of interest. Disease counts are an alternative if no validated measure exists. Conclusions: To enable comparison between studies and settings, researchers and practitioners should be explicit about their choice of definition and measure. Using a cut-off of two or more conditions as part of the definition is widely adopted. Measure selection should be based on tools validated for the outcome being considered. Where there is no validated measure, or where multiple outcomes or populations are being considered, disease counts are appropriate.

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Metadata

Authors
Johnston, M. C., Crilly, M., Black, C., Prescott, G. J., & Mercer, S. W.
Venue
European Journal of Public Health
Published
2018-06-05
Volume
29
Issue
1
Pages
182-189
ISSN
  • 1101-1262 (ISSN-L)
  • 1464-360X
OpenAlex
W2805062403
Cited by
847
References
35
FWCI
7.85
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Defining and measuring multimorbidity: a systematic review of systematic reviews. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1093/eurpub/cky098
The paper
Johnston, M. C., Crilly, M., Black, C., Prescott, G. J., & Mercer, S. W. (2019). Defining and measuring multimorbidity: a systematic review of systematic reviews. European Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cky098

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.