This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications that seek to support the identification of shared mechanisms and development of innovative interventions to address multimorbidity or multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) and its consequences. Intervention research supported by this initiative should be designed to study: (1) mechanisms or pathways that prevent MCCs, including the identification of early biomarkers, behavioral pathways, and individual and contextual risk factors and interactions that contribute to the development of common MCCs; (2) targeted therapies and management, including self-management, of MCCs to delay progression and prevent onset of new diseases; and (3) innovative health care partnership models for managing or treating MCCs. Studies may include shared mechanisms, and assessments of interactions between risk factors and interventions that address MCCs at different periods of the lifespan in diverse populations. Use of innovative technologies to assess and intervene on risk factors and pathways are encouraged. Studies may also include those that make use of existing data and/or data linkages to explore new research questions that may be helpful in understanding the impact of mechanisms in isolation or in combination. Of particular interest are interventions that target prevention and treatment of multiple chronic health conditions, including study designs that address therapeutic targets for preventing co-occurring MCCs.
Prospective applicants whose research interests relate to developing improved measures and methods for understanding multimorbidity, including but not limited to measures/tools to support basic mechanistic discovery of shared MCC pathways and identification and initial evaluation of MCC shared signatures, should see PAR-20-179.