Multimorbidity: clinical assessment and management

Recommendation ID: NG56/4
Question: Predicting life expectancy:- Is it possible to analyse primary care data to identify characteristics that affect life expectancy and to develop algorithms and prediction tools for patients and healthcare providers to predict reduced life expectancy?
Any explanatory notes (if applicable): Why this is important:- Many people take preventive medicines which are likely to offer small benefits because of reduced life expectancy from other causes. Medicines and other treatments may therefore be adding to treatment burden without adding quality or length of life. The ability to identify people with reduced life expectancy could provide healthcare professionals and people with information that could inform decisions about starting or continuing long-term preventive treatments. Conversely younger people with multimorbidity and reduced life expectancy may benefit from additional preventive treatments. Because this information would be used most often in a primary care setting, the committee considered that a tool derived from information within primary care databases would be most useful.

Source guidance details

Is this a recommendation for the use of a technology only in the context of research?	No
Is it a recommendation that suggests collection of data or the establishment of a register?	No
Last Reviewed	30/09/2016