Queen's University Belfast

Academic Institute

Dermot O'Reilly

E061

Multi-morbidity is generally defined in accordance with the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the presence in one individual of two or more long-term health conditions. This approach has been widely used over the years and especially in the latter years by both the research and governmental community. However, this measure is also highly criticised for its limitation in understanding the effect certain health conditions have on individuals and for the mere count of health conditions. This project is one part of a national programme funded by HDR-UK where six different longitudinal, curated data resources known as research-ready datasets across the UK will be prepared. This project aims to provide a clear conceptualisation of multi-morbidity, definitions of what morbidities to count and how to count them; reproducibility of findings across the multiple data sources; and consideration of longitudinal data to better understand trajectories of morbidity accrual and clustering. Patients will be followed up until they die, the end of the study (31 December 2019) or they leave the coverage area of the data sources. This UK-wide project collaboration includes scientists from many different institutions and disciplines, clinicians, and members of the public from across the UK to create a broader team science approach in addressing this complex subject. The findings will allow researchers and health care workers to better plan how to deliver care to people with various types of multi-morbidities.

This research project is one part of a national programme where six different longitudinal, curated data resources known as research ready datasets will be prepared. Each research ready dataset related to different geographical populations within UK will be extracted under existing governance guidance and standardised to allow accurate comparisons across sites, but to also allow the level of multi-morbidity within the UK to be examined. The six research datasets are located in Scotland - eDRIS (population 5.4 million), Wales - SAIL (population 3.5 million), England - CALIBER (population 10 million); Leicester City (population 1.1 million); Discovery (population 1.2milion) and Northern Ireland - NIMC (estimated population 1.4 million). This UK-wide project collaboration includes scientists from many different institutions and disciplines, clinicians, and members of the public from across the UK to create a broader team science approach in addressing this complex subject. This research project is of wide national and international interest because the conceptualisation and measurement of multi-morbidity is a common concern and because analytical methods that can be applied in different datasets are sorely needed.

19/01/2021

TRE