View article

The challenges related to the increasing number of people living with multiple chronic conditions–multimorbidity–are well-known. Over 50 million people in the EU have multiple chronic conditions [6] and around 60% of people aged 65 years and over are estimated to live with multimorbidity [7], with major consequences such as functional impairment, lower quality of life and higher health care utilization and costs [8, 9].

Multimorbidity is associated with a higher number of primary care consultations, hospital outpatient visits and hospital admissions, which increases the workload of health care staff [10, 11]. However, national health care systems in Europe are not designed to adequately meet the care needs of people with multimorbidity, as care services are still fragmented and oriented to managing single diseases instead of complex conditions [12]. There is a risk that people with multimorbidity may receive inadequate care, which can then have a negative impact on their health and quality of life, as well as the health and quality of life of their informal carers.