The global burden of multiple chronic conditions: A narrative review

Globally, approximately one in three of all adults suffer from multiple chronic conditions (MCCs). This review provides a comprehensive overview of the resulting epidemiological, economic and patient burden.There is no agreed taxonomy for MCCs, with several terms used interchangeably and no agreed d...

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Main Authors: Cother Hajat, Emma Stein
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2018-12-01
Series:Preventive Medicine Reports
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335518302468
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author Cother Hajat
Emma Stein
author_facet Cother Hajat
Emma Stein
author_sort Cother Hajat
collection DOAJ
description Globally, approximately one in three of all adults suffer from multiple chronic conditions (MCCs). This review provides a comprehensive overview of the resulting epidemiological, economic and patient burden.There is no agreed taxonomy for MCCs, with several terms used interchangeably and no agreed definition, resulting in up to three-fold variation in prevalence rates: from 16% to 58% in UK studies, 26% in US studies and 9.4% in Urban South Asians.Certain conditions cluster together more frequently than expected, with associations of up to three-fold, e.g. depression associated with stroke and with Alzheimer's disease, and communicable conditions such as TB and HIV/AIDS associated with diabetes and CVD, respectively. Clusters are important as they may be highly amenable to large improvements in health and cost outcomes through relatively simple shifts in healthcare delivery.Healthcare expenditures greatly increase, sometimes exponentially, with each additional chronic condition with greater specialist physician access, emergency department presentations and hospital admissions. The patient burden includes a deterioration of quality of life, out of pocket expenses, medication adherence, inability to work, symptom control and a high toll on carers. This high burden from MCCs is further projected to increase.Recommendations for interventions include reaching consensus on the taxonomy of MCC, greater emphasis on MCCs research, primary prevention to achieve compression of morbidity, a shift of health systems and policies towards a multiple-condition framework, changes in healthcare payment mechanisms to facilitate this change and shifts in health and epidemiological databases to include MCCs. Keywords: Multiple chronic conditions, Multimorbidity, Chronic disease, Noncommunicable diseases, Communicable diseases, Health care costs, Health policy, Review
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spelling doaj.art-c6c0c89e3eb8479594fe3849fc843a0b2022-12-22T02:43:29ZengElsevierPreventive Medicine Reports2211-33552018-12-0112284293The global burden of multiple chronic conditions: A narrative reviewCother Hajat0Emma Stein1The Vitality Group, United States of America; Corresponding author at: 2 St Georges Manor, Oxford OX44TN, UK.Yale School of Public Health, United States of AmericaGlobally, approximately one in three of all adults suffer from multiple chronic conditions (MCCs). This review provides a comprehensive overview of the resulting epidemiological, economic and patient burden.There is no agreed taxonomy for MCCs, with several terms used interchangeably and no agreed definition, resulting in up to three-fold variation in prevalence rates: from 16% to 58% in UK studies, 26% in US studies and 9.4% in Urban South Asians.Certain conditions cluster together more frequently than expected, with associations of up to three-fold, e.g. depression associated with stroke and with Alzheimer's disease, and communicable conditions such as TB and HIV/AIDS associated with diabetes and CVD, respectively. Clusters are important as they may be highly amenable to large improvements in health and cost outcomes through relatively simple shifts in healthcare delivery.Healthcare expenditures greatly increase, sometimes exponentially, with each additional chronic condition with greater specialist physician access, emergency department presentations and hospital admissions. The patient burden includes a deterioration of quality of life, out of pocket expenses, medication adherence, inability to work, symptom control and a high toll on carers. This high burden from MCCs is further projected to increase.Recommendations for interventions include reaching consensus on the taxonomy of MCC, greater emphasis on MCCs research, primary prevention to achieve compression of morbidity, a shift of health systems and policies towards a multiple-condition framework, changes in healthcare payment mechanisms to facilitate this change and shifts in health and epidemiological databases to include MCCs. Keywords: Multiple chronic conditions, Multimorbidity, Chronic disease, Noncommunicable diseases, Communicable diseases, Health care costs, Health policy, Reviewhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335518302468
spellingShingle Cother Hajat
Emma Stein
The global burden of multiple chronic conditions: A narrative review
Preventive Medicine Reports
title The global burden of multiple chronic conditions: A narrative review
title_full The global burden of multiple chronic conditions: A narrative review
title_fullStr The global burden of multiple chronic conditions: A narrative review
title_full_unstemmed The global burden of multiple chronic conditions: A narrative review
title_short The global burden of multiple chronic conditions: A narrative review
title_sort global burden of multiple chronic conditions a narrative review
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335518302468
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