Definition of "multifactorial" [multifactorial]

• Involving, dependent on, or controlled by several factors. (adjective)
• Of, relating to, or caused by a pattern of familial inheritance resulting from multiple genetic or environmental factors or from a combination of both. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""Many of the preventive measures used to avoid falls in older people are combined in what are called multifactorial interventions, so it can be very difficult to separate out the effects of all the different measures," said lead researcher Ian Cameron, who is based at Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney in Ryde, Australia."
• ""The field is coming around to the idea of the cause of Alzheimer's being multifactorial," and disturbed metal regulation could be one of those factors, says Ralph Nixon , chairman of the Alzheimer Association's medical and scientific advisory council and director of the Silberstein Alzheimer's Institute at New York University."
• "Jim Wolfe#59 … multifactorial reasons … first and foremost, to deny Saddam the same control of the region that Iran is now looking for."