International Research Community on Multimorbidity

By the Chronic Disease Surveillance and Monitoring Division, Public Health Agency of Canada (CDSMD-PHAC)

The need for a consist and coherent approach to measure multimorbidity was the main message arising from a meeting hosted by the Chronic Disease Surveillance and Monitoring Division of the Public Health Agency of Canada on December 14, 2012 in Ottawa, ON.  The Agency convened several leaders working in the area of multimorbidity in Canada to discuss the conceptualization and definition of multimorbidity from a public health surveillance perspective.

Multimorbidity leaders agreed that while some efforts have been made to establish standardised tools and techniques to assess multimorbidity, there has been a lack of consensus and multimorbidity measures to date have been characterized by high heterogeneity.  Without consistent methodologies to measure multimorbidity, public health practitioners and clinicians may receive little or inconsistent information about the scope and burden of multimorbidity and what can be done to address the problem.

Leaders emphasized the need to define multimorbidity in a way that will resonate with both public health policy makers and clinicians and they encouraged continued attention toward the issues at the heart of multimorbidity in Canada, such as complexity of clinical care, cases of concurrent mental illness, and the common risk factors and determinants which precipitate development of multiple diseases.

The Chronic Disease Surveillance and Monitoring Division is looking forward to working with other multimorbidity leaders to help meet this challenge, and to advance the measurement and reporting of multimorbidity in Canada.