Synopsis

Multimorbidity (having multiple chronic conditions) is increasingly recognised as a major public health problem in older people, but little research has focused on multimorbidity in younger populations. Furthermore, the social and lifestyle determinants of multimorbidity are poorly understood. Multimorbidity can be defined or modelled in a number of ways, from a simple measure of burden (number of conditions), to patterns (i.e. clusters of diseases). We aim to investigate how socioeconomic and lifestyle factors relate to multimorbidity as measured by: number of conditions; multimorbidity trajectory over time; and multimorbidity patterns (i.e. clusters of diseases).