Synopsis

Multimorbidity, defined as having two or more chronic conditions, is increasingly recognised as a major public health problem in older people, but little research has focused on multimorbidity in younger populations. Little is known on how diseases cluster together (i.e. which conditions are more commonly found to co-occur), and how socioeconomic and lifestyle factors might influence the development of these clusters. We have recently made an important contribution to this area by identifying multimorbidity patterns in mid-age women included in the ALSWH study. We now aim to investigate how socioeconomic and lifestyle factors relate to these multimorbidity patterns.