Table 1.
Descriptive summary of included studies
| Variable | Total—n (%) |
| Study characteristics | |
| Geographical location | |
| North America | 94 (62%) |
| Europe | 43 (28%) |
| Australia and New Zealand | 10 (7%) |
| Asia | 5 (3%) |
| Setting | |
| Primary care | 54 (36%) |
| Outpatient specialised | 59 (39%) |
| Hospital (inpatient and emergency) | 26 (17%) |
| Nursing homes | 5 (3%) |
| Interdisciplinary | 8 (5%) |
| Study design/method | |
| Qualitative (observational) | 63 (42%) |
| Cross-sectional (observational) | 59 (39%) |
| Longitudinal (observational) | 4 (6%) |
| Quantitative | 86 (57%) |
| Cross-sectional (observational) | 63 (41%) |
| Longitudinal (observational) | 22 (15%) |
| Interventional | 1 (1%) |
| Mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) | 3 (2%) |
| Observational (total) | 151 (99%) |
| Interventional (total) | 1 (1%) |
| Sample size—median (range) | 83 (9–9105) |
| Observational | |
| Qualitative | 30 (9–160) |
| Quantitative | 196 (11–9105) |
| Mixed methods | 50 (32–60) |
| Interventional | 317 |
| Patients ’ characteristics | |
| Type of condition | |
| Studies describing multimorbid patients* | 58 (38%) |
| Studies describing patients with an index disease and comorbidity | 29 (19%) |
| Diabetes | 7 (5%) |
| Hypertension | 5 (3%) |
| Depression/mental illness | 4 (3%) |
| Cardiovascular disease | 4 (3%) |
| Osteoarthritis | 3 (2%) |
| Other | 6 (4%) |
| Studies describing patients with chronic conditions often associated with multimorbidity | 65 (43%) |
| Chronic heart failure | 10 (7%) |
| Advanced cancer | 16 (11%) |
| Chronic kidney disease | 15 (10%) |
| COPD | 4 (3%) |
| Mixed (heart failure, COPD…) | 20 (13%) |
| Age (range)† | 60–85 |
| Sex (% female)† | 28 905 (51%) |
*No further details of included conditions were reported in the majority of studies.
†Studies with overlapping population were excluded (n=10).36 58 59 83 84 105 109 149 161 169
COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.