[Rehabilitation medicine and appropriateness criteria: between chronicity, multimorbidity and complexity]

In the last two decades, population aging has led to a substantial increase in the number of people living with moderate-to-severe disability and, consequently, an increased demand for rehabilitation care. It is estimated that, currently, 2.8 million people live with severe disability in Italy. Although greater access to rehabilitation care is required to meet the needs of disabled patients, the capacity to provide rehabilitation has not changed over the last years and fails to meet current rehabilitation needs. Efforts should be devoted for aligning the capacity to provide rehabilitation care to the increased demand for rehabilitation care.