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In [[medicine]], '''comorbidity''' is the presence of one or more additional conditions [[wikt:co-occur#Verb|co-occurring]] with (that is, [[wikt:concomitant#Adjective|concomitant]] or [[wikt:concurrent#Adjective|concurrent]] with) a primary condition; in the [[count noun|countable]] sense of the term, a '''comorbidity''' (plural '''comorbidities''') is each additional condition. The additional condition may also be a [[emotional and behavioral disorders|behavioral]] or [[mental disorder]]. Comorbidity describes the effect of all other conditions an individual patient might have other than the primary condition of interest.
'''Comorbidity''' can indicate either a condition existing simultaneously, but independently with another condition or a related medical condition. The latter [[word sense|sense]] of the term causes some [[semantic field|overlap]] with the concept of [[complication (medicine)|complications]]. For example, in longstanding [[diabetes mellitus]], the extent to which [[coronary artery disease]] is an independent comorbidity versus a [[complications of diabetes mellitus|diabetic complication]] is not easy to measure, because both diseases are quite multivariate and there are likely aspects of both simultaneity and consequence. The same is true of [[intercurrent disease in pregnancy|intercurrent diseases in pregnancy]]. In other examples, the true independence or relation is not ascertainable because [[syndrome]]s and [[genetic association|associations]] are often identified long before [[pathogenesis|pathogenetic]] commonalities are confirmed (and, in some examples, before they are even [[hypothesis|hypothesized]]). In psychiatric diagnoses it has been argued in part that this "'use of imprecise language may lead to correspondingly imprecise thinking', [and] this usage of the term 'comorbidity' should probably be avoided."<ref name="pmid_15738496">{{Citation |last=Maj |first=M |year=2005 |title='Psychiatric comorbidity': an artefact of current diagnostic systems? |journal=Br J Psychiatry |volume=186 |issue=3 |pages=182–84 |pmid=15738496 |doi=10.1192/bjp.186.3.182 |postscript=.|doi-access=free }}</ref> However, in many medical examples, such as comorbid diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease, it makes little difference which word is used, as long as the medical complexity is duly recognized and addressed.
Many tests attempt to standardize the "weight" or value of comorbid conditions, whether they are secondary or tertiary illnesses. Each test attempts to consolidate each individual comorbid condition into a single, predictive variable that measures mortality or other outcomes. Researchers have validated such tests because of their predictive value, but no one test is as yet recognized as a standard.
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