Complex Care Needs in Multiple Chronic Conditions: Population Prevalence and Characterization in Primary Care. A Study Protocol

BACKGROUND: Chronicity, and particularly complex care needs for people with chronic diseases is one of the main challenges of health systems. OBJECTIVE: To determine the population prevalence of people with chronic diseases and complex care needs and to characterize these needs considering features of health and social complexity in Primary Care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional population-based study. SCOPE: Patients who have one or more chronic health conditions from three Primary Care urban centres of a reference population of 43.647 inhabitants older than 14 years old. METHODOLOGY: Data will be obtained from the review of electronical medical records. Complexity will be defined by: 1) the independent clinical judgment of primary care physicians and nurses and 2) the aid of three complexity domains (clinical and social). Patients with advanced chronic disease and limited life prognosis will be also described. CONCLUSIONS: This research protocol intends to describe and analyse complex care needs from a primary care professional perspective in order to improve knowledge of complexity beyond multimorbidity and previous consumption of health resources. Knowing about health and social complexity with a more robust empirical basis could help for a better integration of social and health policies and a more proactive and differentiated care approach in this most vulnerable population.