Hamza and I (Natalia) are 4th year medical students, and we have – over the last 5 weeks – updated the database of multimorbidity literature for the period between January 2024 and June 2024. We also identified topic areas that particularly interested us, which we then explored while writing our report as part of our Student Selected Component (SSC).

The categories we chose for the database is as follows:

  1. Epidemiology of multimorbidity: Predictors
  2. Epidemiology of multimorbidity: Outcomes
  3. Polypharmacy
  4. Management of multimorbidity
  5. Qualitative work – experience and perspectives
  6. Multimorbidity policy and editorials

Add how many articles you found overall – X from the search and X that you included under the above categories.

I (Hamza) was specifically interested in papers relating to the role that adverse childhood experiences can have on both mental and physical multimorbidity in adulthood. I found 5 papers from my initial search that were focused on this important area of research. Along with other papers I found, I learnt that childhood has a significant impact on health throughout adult life. One paper that really highlighted this was Taylor, K et. al (year) which showed that increased numbers of adverse childhood experiences (3 or more) multiplied the risk of multiple chronic conditions by 3x and that it was also correlated with increased variety of chronic disease formation. This is important because it highlights the vital role that early intervention can play in helping prevent diseases for individuals and the role that health professionals play in helping to screen patients for high-risk states in childhood which can allow for early management.

Although I (Natalia) only found two papers in the initial search, the topic of multimorbidity in pregnancy and its associations with adverse birth outcomes stood out to me most. While conducting further research into this area, I found that maternal multimorbidity is becoming increasingly prevalent, which carries increased risk of maternal mortality and other perinatal complications. According to an epidemiology study conducted by Lee, SI et al., multimorbidity in pregnancy was more likely to occur with increased age (OR: 1.81), multigravidity (OR: 1.68), obesity (OR: 1.59) and smoking history (OR: 1.61). Furthermore, a paper by Bestman, PL et al. (year) showed that adverse birth outcomes, such as preterm birth and neonatal mortality, were over three times more likely in the presence of pregnancy multimorbidity. Considering the increase in multimorbidity risk factors as well as the shift in societal outlook on pregnancy, I think that these papers highlight the need for further research into consequences of maternal multimorbidity, as well as the significance of pre-conception counselling and integrated care strategies.

The full results of this search can be found here Multimorbidity Publications Jan-June 2024

First published: 11 October 2024

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Multimorbidity Publications Jan-June 2024