Table 3

Association between global MTBQ score and global HCTD score, self-reported disease burden score, quality of life score, number of self-reported conditions and self-rated health at baseline

VariableNSpearman’s rank correlations (rs)P values
Global HCTD score*1410.58<0.0001
Self-reported disease burden score†14430.42<0.0001
Number of self-reported conditions‡15230.31<0.0001
Quality of life score§1520−0.36<0.0001
Self-rated health¶1503−0.36<0.0001
  • *Calculation of global HCTD score: sum of scores where each question was scored 0 (no difficulty), 1 (some difficulty) or 2 (a lot of difficulty). Minimum score 0, maximum score 16. Missing data were scored 0 (not difficult), as suggested by the HCTD authors.6

  • †Sum of the weighted scores (each scored 1–5) from the Bayliss scale.12 Responses were excluded if participants ticked that they had a condition but did not score how much the condition limited their daily activity, or if they gave a score without ticking that they had the condition.

  • ‡Number of self-reported conditions from the Bayliss scale.

  • §EuroQol five dimensions, five level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) score.11

  • ¶Single question: ‘In general, would you say your health is poor (1), fair (2), good (3), very good (4) or excellent (5)?’

  • HCTD, Healthcare Task Difficulty; MTBQ, Multimorbidity Treatment Burden Questionnaire.