Table 1

Study population inclusion and exclusion criteria

	General inclusion	Country-specific inclusion
Patients and/or family members	18-years-old plus any of the following diagnoses: diabetes mellitus, asthma, COPD, chronic heart failure and/or prescribed 6+ drugs Recruited consecutively at the point of their hospital discharge Discharged to the community (ie, home or nursing home)	The Netherlands: patients admitted to internal medicine, pulmonary diseases, cardiology or (vascular) surgical wards Spain: patients belonging to cultural minority groups with limited health literacy (capacity to read, write and understand healthcare information) Poland: patients ≥60 years of age Italy: patients admitted to emergency ward Sweden: patients admitted to emergency ward from emergency room. If living at a nursing home, only within a geographically specified area
Hospital physicians and nurses	Internal medicine, pulmonary diseases, cardiology or (vascular) surgical wards
GPs and community nurses	Representing the communities to which the patients were discharged
Exclusion criteria
Patients referred to other care units within the hospital prior to their discharge home or discharge to another country