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Investigating Somatic Multimorbidity in People with Mental Disorders Using Innovative Metrics and National Register-based Data

Project description

Understanding multimorbidity in people with mental disorders

People living with mental disorders often face serious physical health problems. Research so far has mainly focused on single conditions, overlooking the reality that many patients suffer from several chronic illnesses at once, known as somatic multimorbidity. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SOMULTIMATE project focuses on the complexity of multimorbidity across the full spectrum of mental disorders. Researchers will use innovative methods to analyse Danish national health data and capture the true burden of multimorbidity in people with mental disorders. They aim to map patterns of coexisting illnesses and their impact on premature death, highlighting the most critical health risks. The generated knowledge could improve survival among people with mental disorders.

Objective

Despite the strong evidence on common occurrence of physical health conditions and their profound negative impact on survival in people with mental disorders, existing research has focused predominantly on the presence of single, distinct physical health conditions in these people. Somatic multimorbidity, denoting the coexistence of two or more chronic physical health conditions, remains incompletely described and understood in people with mental disorders. Furthermore, while it is known that the staggeringly lower life expectancy in people with mental disorders is explained by natural causes of death, the precise contributions of somatic multimorbidity to premature mortality have not been studied systematically. A major impediment in furthering knowledge is the prevailing methodology, consisting of solely counting of the number of physical health conditions, which is inherently unable to reveal the complex nature of somatic multimorbidity. The focus of SOMULTIMATE is to apply novel metrics on Danish national, register-based data that will allow to better capture the true burden of somatic multimorbidity in people with mental disorders. By considering the entire spectrum of mental disorders, SOMULTIMATE will provide the most comprehensive estimates (i) of the extent and patterns of somatic multimorbidity and (ii) of the impact of somatic multimorbidity on mortality in these conditions. This would facilitate the identification of the most common somatic multimorbidity, including in a wide array of so far overlooked mental disorders, and potentially inform screening targets for physical health conditions in various settings. Unravelling the precise contributions of somatic multimorbidity to premature mortality would then provide actionable targets to reduce the life expectancy gap. In addition, the methodological advances introduced by SOMULTIMATE would be directly applicable in diverse areas of medical research.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution
€ 247 553,28
Address
NORDRE RINGGADE 1
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
Region
Danmark Midtjylland Østjylland
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost
No data