Multimorbidity, Polypharmacy, and Healthy Aging: From Complex Care to Optimised Outcomes

The global population is aging rapidly, and with it comes a rising prevalence of multimorbidity — the co-occurrence of two or more chronic conditions in a single individual. Managing multimorbidity almost inevitably leads to polypharmacy, where patients are prescribed multiple medications simultaneously to address each condition. While each prescription may be clinically justified in isolation, the cumulative burden of complex medication regimens poses significant challenges: drug drug interactions, adverse drug reactions, non adherence, frailty, functional decline, and diminished quality of life.Despite its scale, multimorbidity remains an underserved area of clinical research. Most treatment guidelines are designed around single disease paradigms, leaving clinicians without robust, evidence based frameworks for patients whose care does not fit neatly into one specialty. At the same time, the concept of healthy aging — maintaining physical, cognitive, and social function across the life course — demands a shift from disease management toward person centred, integrated approaches that prioritise what matters most to older adults.This Research Topic invites submissions that examine the intersection of multimorbidity, polypharmacy, and healthy aging, with the goal of translating complex evidence into optimised, patient centred outcomes. We welcome work spanning epidemiology, clinical practice, pharmacology, implementation science, digital health, and health systems research.Themes of Interest Include:1. Epidemiology and burden of multimorbidity and polypharmacy in older adults across diverse populations and settings2. Patterns of multimorbidity clustering and their implications for care planning3. Clinical and pharmacological strategies for medication optimisation, deprescribing, and rational polypharmacy4. Person centred outcome measures in multimorbid populations, including quality of life, functional status, and patient reported outcomes5. Frailty as a mediator or modifier of multimorbidity and treatment response6. Integrated care models, care coordination, and transitions of care for older adults with complex needs7. Digital health tools, clinical decision support systems, and AI driven approaches to managing polypharmacy8. Adherence, health literacy, and shared decision making in the context of complex medication regimens9. Inequities in multimorbidity burden and access to optimised care across socioeconomic, geographic, and demographic groups10. Longitudinal studies and real world evidence on outcomes in older adults with multimorbidity11. Pharmacovigilance, adverse drug event surveillance, and safety monitoring in vulnerable populations Topic editors: Shubham Kumar, Ajit Kumar Jaiswal Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81536/multimorbidity-polypharmacy-and-healthy-aging-from-complex-care-to-optimised-outcomes