Background Multimorbidity is a growing global concern, affecting patient outcomes and healthcare costs. In low- and middle-income countries, data on multimorbidity in primary care beyond prevalence is limited. Our study explored the demographic and clinical characteristics of multimorbidity among older people attending primary health care in Malawi. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional analysis on medical records from 15,009 older patients aged ≥50 years across three hospitals in Malawi (one tertiary, two district). Data from 2019-2021 was analyzed using R statistical software to examine patterns of multimorbidity (two or more chronic conditions). Outcome estimates were adjusted for sex, age, location, and year of clinic visit. Results The overall prevalence of multimorbidity, defined across 17 recorded chronic conditions, was 19.6%. Among the 2,941 cases of multimorbidity, 2,708 (92.0%) involved two chronic conditions, while 233 (8.0%) involved three. While most conditions increased steadily in prevalence with age, diabetes followed a different pattern, with higher prevalence among individuals aged 50–59 years (53.9%) and 60–69 years (52.4%) compared to those 70 years and older (40.3%). After adjusting for clinic visit year, gender, and study location, individuals aged 70 years and older were significantly less likely to have multimorbidity compared to those aged 50–59 years (AOR = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.52–0.62, p < 0.001). Conclusion The study revealed a wide range of multimorbidity combinations among older people attending primary health care. Strategies to address multimorbidity in older people should include efforts to identify other, less common clusters of chronic conditions.

Background: Few interventions are documented to meet person-centred needs of older people with serious multimorbidity in low- and middle-income countries where access to palliative care is limited. Most of the care in these settings is delivered by primary care health workers. Aim: This study reports the development and acceptability testing of a communication skills training and mentorship intervention for primary health care workers in Malawi. Setting: This study was conducted at Mangochi District Hospital in the south-eastern region of Malawi. Methods: Twelve primary health care workers (four clinical officers and eight nurses) working in the primary care clinics received the intervention. The intervention was designed using modified nominal group technique, informed by stakeholder interviews and a theory of change workshop. Acceptability is reported from thematic analysis of a focus group discussion with primary health care workers who received the intervention using NVivo version 14. Results: Older persons with serious multi-morbidity and their caregivers identified a need for enhanced communication with their healthcare providers. This helped to inform the development of a communication training skills and mentorship intervention package based on the local best practice six-step Ask-Ask-Tell-Ask-Ask-Plan framework. Primary health care workers reported that the intervention supported person-centred communication and improved the quality of holistic assessments, although space, workload and availability of medication limited the implementation of person-centred communication. Conclusion: The Ask-Ask-Tell-Ask-Ask-Plan framework, supported person-centered communication and improved the quality of holistic assessment. Contribution: This intervention offers an affordable, local model for integrating person-centered palliative care in resource-limited primary healthcare settings.

Abstract Background The global population is undergoing a significant surge in aging leading to increased susceptibility to various forms of progressive illnesses. This phenomenon significantly impacts both individual health and healthcare systems. Low and Middle Income Countries face particular challenges, as their Primary Health Care (PHC) settings often lack the necessary human and material resources to effectively address the escalating healthcare demands of the older people. This study set out to explore the experiences of older people living with progressive multimorbidity in accessing PHC services in Malawi. Methods Between July 2022 and January 2023, a total of sixty in-depth interviews were conducted with dyads of individuals aged ≥ 50 years and their caregivers, and twelve healthcare workers in three public hospitals across Malawi’s three administrative regions. The study employed a stratified selection of sites, ensuring representation from rural, peri-urban, and urban settings, allowing for a comprehensive comparison of diverse perspectives. Guided by the Andersen-Newman theoretical framework, the study assessed the barriers, facilitators, and need factors influencing PHC service access and utilization by the older people. Results Three themes, consistent across all sites emerged, encompassing barriers, facilitators, and need factors respectively. The themes include: (1) clinic environment: inconvenient clinic setup, reliable PHC services and research on diabetic foods; (2) geographical factors: available means of transportation, bad road conditions, lack of comprehensive PHC services at local health facility and need for community approaches; and (3) social and personal factors: encompassing use of alternative medicine, perceived health care benefit and support with startup capital for small-scale businesses. Conclusion This research highlights the impact of various factors on older people’s access to and use of PHC services. A comprehensive understanding of the barriers, facilitators, and specific needs of older people is essential for developing tailored services that effectively address their unique challenges and preferences. The study underscores the necessity of community-based approaches to improve PHC access for this demographic. Engaging multiple stakeholders is important to tackle the diverse challenges, enhance PHC services at all levels, and facilitate access for older people living with progressive multimorbidity.

Ensuring primary healthcare (PHC) accessibility to older people with multimorbidity is vital in preventing unnecessary health deterioration. However, older people ≥50 y of age in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face challenges in effectively accessing and utilizing PHC. A systematic review was conducted adopting the Andersen-Newman theoretical framework for health services utilization to assess evidence on factors that affect access to PHC by older people. This framework predicts that a series of factors (predisposing, enabling and need factors) influence the utilization of health services by people in general. Seven publications were identified and a narrative analytical method revealed limited research in this area. Facilitating factors included family support, closeness to the PHC facility, friendly service providers and improved functional status of the older people. Barriers included long distance and disjointed PHC services, fewer health professionals and a lack of person-centred care. The following needs were identified: increasing the number of health professionals, provision of PHC services under one roof and regular screening services. There is a need for more investment in infrastructure development, coordination of service delivery and capacity building of service providers in LMICs to improve access and utilization of PHC services for older people.

Multimorbidity is an emerging challenge for health systems globally. It is commonly defined as the co-occurrence of two or more chronic conditions in one person, but its meaning remains a lively area of academic debate, and the utility of the concept beyond high-income settings is uncertain. This article presents the findings from an interdisciplinary research initiative that drew together 60 academic and applied partners working in 10 African countries to answer the questions: how useful is the concept of multimorbidity within Africa? Can the concept be adapted to context to optimise its transformative potentials? During a three-day concept-building workshop, we investigated how the definition of multimorbidity was understood across diverse disciplinary and regional perspectives, evaluated the utility and limitations of existing concepts and definitions, and considered how to build a more context-sensitive, cross-cutting description of multimorbidity. This iterative process was guided by the principles of grounded theory and involved focus- and whole-group discussions during the workshop, thematic coding of workshop discussions, and further post-workshop development and refinement. Three thematic domains emerged from workshop discussions: the current focus of multimorbidity on constituent diseases; the potential for revised concepts to centre the priorities, needs, and social context of people living with multimorbidity (PLWMM); and the need for revised concepts to respond to varied conceptual priorities amongst stakeholders. These themes fed into the development of an expanded conceptual model that centres the catastrophic impacts multimorbidity can have for PLWMM, families and support structures, service providers, and health systems.

The article “The increased need for palliative cancer care in Sub-Saharan Africa” prompted a more comprehensive review of palliative care in Malawi [ [1] van der Plas W.Y. Benjamens S. Kruijff S. The increased need for palliative cancer care in Sub-Saharan Africa. Eur J Surg Oncol. 2020; 46: 1373-1376https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejso.2020.03.212 Google Scholar ]. Following discussion and insights from the current literature, it became clear that there was a need to update the evidence on the state of palliative care reported from Malawi. By publishing progress made, we support early engagement with local expert opinion to ensure the availability of accurate information for reporting in future publications of this type. The increased need for palliative cancer care in Sub-Saharan AfricaEuropean Journal of Surgical OncologyVol. 46Issue 7PreviewAlthough palliative care as a discipline in high income countries is maturing, it is still somewhat in its infancy in sub-Saharan Africa, an area where this type of care is needed the most: more than 80% of people in urgent need of palliative care live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We will describe why the development of palliative care in LMICs is increasingly essential, and how it is currently still underdeveloped. In this manuscript, we discuss the challenges in organizing palliative care in LMICs in regard to the four WHO palliative care pillars: policy, education, medication, and implementation. Full-Text PDF Open Access