Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul;8(2):e224-e229.
doi: 10.7861/fhj.2021-0085.

Clustering of comorbidities

Yogini V Chudasama  1 , Kamlesh Khunti  1 , Melanie J Davies  1
Affiliations

Clustering of comorbidities

Yogini V Chudasama et al. Future Healthc J. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Within the last decade, clustering of comorbidities has become an increasing health problem on a global scale and will continue to challenge healthcare professionals in the coming years. People with multiple diseases find difficulties in managing their daily lives due to the implications each disease brings; attending and keeping up to date with hospital appointments, being prescribed and taking various medications, the effects of mental health and quality of life, and the impact it has on their families. Most research in clinical trials often exclude individuals with multimorbidity and observational studies mainly focus on single disease outcomes, therefore there is an opportunity to encourage future research in an area which could help prevent further cases and improve the lives of those already living with multimorbidity. This review aims to summarise the rising prevalence and most common clusters, highlight the challenges faced in healthcare, and explore ways to improve future research.

Keywords: clustering; comorbidities; healthcare; multimorbidity; research.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig 1.
Fig 1.
Clustering of comorbidities and future research. Adapted with permission from the authors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Daar AS, Singer PA, Persad DL, et al. Grand challenges in chronic non-communicable diseases. Nature 2007;450:494–6. - PubMed
    1. N'Goran AA, Blaser J, Deruaz-Luyet A, et al. From chronic conditions to relevance in multimorbidity: a four-step study in family medicine. Family Practice 2016;33:439–44. - PubMed
    1. Coles B, Zaccardi F, Seidu S, et al. Rates and estimated cost of primary care consultations in people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and comorbidities: A retrospective analysis of 8.9 million consultations. Diabetes Obes Metab 2021;23:1301–10. - PubMed
    1. Akker VD. Comorbidity or multimorbidity: what's in a name? A review of literature. Eur J Gen Pract 1996;2:65–70.
    1. Tugwell P, Knottnerus JA. Multimorbidity and Comorbidity are now separate MESH headings. J Clin Epidemiol 2019;105:vi–viii. - PubMed