Table 2.
Responses to questions relevant to definitions of multimorbidity and complex multimorbidity. Data are percentage of panellists agreeing (and Delphi survey round (R))
| Question or statement | Professional panellists | Public panellists |
| Definition of multimorbidity | ||
| Multimorbidity is two or more long term conditions | 84.8 (R2) | 88.0 (R1) |
| Complex multimorbidity is a useful idea | 87.5 (R2) | 84.0 (R2) |
| Complex multimorbidity is three or more long term conditions | No consensus | 76.0 (R3) |
| Types of conditions to include | ||
| Long term means present for six months or more | 70.5 (R2) | No consensus |
| Long term means present for 12 months or more | No consensus | 76.0 (R1) |
| Medical diagnoses | 99.1 (R2) | 96.8 (R1) |
| Clinical risk factors | No consensus | 74.2 (R2) |
| Currently active | 98.7 (R1) | 93.5 (R2) |
| Permanent in their effects | 98.6 (R1) | 96.0 (R1) |
| Requiring current treatment, care, or therapy | 100.0 (R2) | 96.8 (R2) |
| Requiring surveillance | 74.7 (R3) | 88.0 (R3) |
| Remitting-relapsing conditions requiring ongoing treatment or care | 93.8 (R3) | 92.0 (R3) |
| Counting or categorisation | ||
| Count individual conditions not broad disease categories | 72.0 (R1) | 88.0 (R1) |
| Count individual cancers separately | No consensus | 76.0 (R1) |
| Criteria for selecting conditions relating to impact | ||
| Significantly increase risk of death | 94.6 (R2) | 100 (R1) |
| Significantly reduce quality of life | 96.6 (R1) | 93.5 (R2) |
| Cause frailty | 89.9 (R2) | 90.3 (R2) |
| Cause physical disability | 93.3 (R1) | 96.8 (R2) |
| Significantly worsen mental health | 92.6 (R1) | 87.1 (R2) |
| Significantly worsen self-perceived health status | 77.4 (R2) | No consensus |
| Significantly increase treatment burden | 87.4 (R2) | 87.1 (R2) |
| Impacted by social deprivation and poverty | No consensus | 74.2 (R2) |
| Data source | ||
| Conditions should be the same/similar in both self-report and clinical/administrative database studies | 71.8 (R2) | 96.0 (R2) |
| Purposes where a simple count preferred or acceptable* | ||
| Estimating prevalence | 83.7 (R3) | Not asked |
| Identifying and counting disease clusters | 80.2 (R3) | Not asked |
| Exploring trajectories of multimorbidity | 72.7 (R3) | Not asked |
| Purposes where weighted measure preferred or acceptable* | ||
| Assessing severity of disease burden | 94.5 (R3) | Not asked |
| Risk adjustment or outcome prediction | 91.2 (R3) | Not asked |
| Outcomes important to weight against | ||
| Death | 92.8 (R1) | 96.8 (R2) |
| Healthcare use | 83.7 (R1) | 90.3 (R2) |
| Health related quality of life | 92.3 (R1) | 90.3 (R2) |
| Physical disability | 87.8 (R1) | 86.7 (R2) |
| Frailty | 86.3 (R1) | 76.7 (R2) |
Absolute numbers for percentage data are as follows: professional panel, round 1 n=150, round 2 n=112, round 3 n=97; public panel, round 1 n=25, round 2 n=31, round 3 n=25.
*Panellists could either state that they preferred a simple or weighted measure for the listed options, or that a simple or weighted measure were both acceptable; values are the sum of "preferred" or "acceptable."