Patterns of multimorbid health conditions: a systematic review of analytical methods and comparison analysis

Abstract

Background: The latest review of studies on multimorbidity patterns showed high heterogeneity in the methodology for identifying groups of multimorbid conditions. However, it is unclear how analytical methods used influence the identified multimorbidity patterns. Methods: We undertook a systematic review of analytical methods used to identify multimorbidity patterns in PubMed and EMBASE from their inception to January 2017. We conducted a comparison analysis to assess the effect the analytical methods had on the multimorbidity patterns identified, using the Australian National Health Survey (NHS) 2007-08 data. Results: We identified 13 194 studies and excluded 13 091 based on titles/abstract..