Multimorbidity in rheumatology. From comprehensive assessment of disease to evaluation of a set of diseases

Abstract

The World Health Organization assigns cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, as well as diabetes mellitus and some other nosological entities, including mental and musculoskeletal disorders, to main non-communicable diseases. These are considered to be a major public health challenge of the 21st century. In this case, one patient frequently has a set of several age-related chronic diseases that develop simultaneously or sequentially. The management of these patients requires an integrated approach based on the multimorbid nature of pathology. Unlike the definition of comorbidities, which assumes to identify the underlying and related diseases, the concept of multimorbidity of such gradations fails to provide and interprets a patient's chronic diseases as equivalent.

Keywords

• multimorbidity
• comorbidity
• mortality
• rheumatic diseases
• treatment