A Multicenter Study of Multimorbidity in Older Adult Inpatients in China

Abstract

Research on multimorbidity of older adults in China is still at the early stage. For the community-dwelling older population, a cross-sectional community health survey in southern China showed that the average number of chronic conditions was 1.68 ±1.60, and the prevalence of multimorbidity was reported to be 45.5% (11). Meanwhile, a study from northeastern China reported that almost a quarter (24.7%) of older adults was found to be multimorbid for chronic diseases (12). In another study from Nanjing, the prevalence of multimorbidity was 49.4% in community-dwelling older adults in urban areas (13). A large cross-sectional survey among 162,464 community household residents in southern China reported that more than 1 in 10 of the total study population (11.1%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 10.6 to 11.6) had 2 or more chronic conditions from a list of 40 morbidities (14). There are few studies of multimorbidity in hospitalized older adult patients in China. A survey of discharged patients in Hong Kong showed that 33.9% had 2 or more comorbid conditions (15). In China, which maintains a large population of older people with multimorbidity, most clinical guidelines nonetheless focus almost exclusively on single conditions (16), resulting in numerous hospital visits, polypharmacy, repeated

The Risk of Multimorbidity Associated with Overweight and Obesity: Data from the Brazilian National Health Survey 2013

“…Some studies have identified hypertension as the most prevalent of the morbidities evaluated among individuals with higher BMI. 26,27,30 In addition, these results emphasize the findings of Guimarães et al, which indicate that weight control has a positive relationship with more suitable blood pressure measurements.…”

Prevalence of Chronic Diseases and Multimorbidity Among Urban Community-Dwelling Elderly Individuals in Northeastern China

“…A recent multicenter study showed that the average frequency of multimorbidity was 69.3% among elderly individuals, and these data were from medical wards of tertiary-care hospitals in China. In addition, this multicenter study showed that the prevalence of multimorbidity was higher in the northern area (71.7%), which was similar to our results, compared to the south (66%) 31 . In another survey conducted in eastern China, the prevalence of multimorbidity was 90.5% in the rural elderly population, which was higher than in our study 8 .…”

COVID-19 Spiraling of Frailty in Older Italian Patients

“…For example, Yang X et al (8) found that in 52 non-survivors with COVID-19, 22% had Type 2 Diabetes, while another study found that hypertension was the most common comorbidity reaching 30% in a sample of 191 patients (9). In recently published Chinese report, regarding an in-hospital sample of older persons (n=4,348) with a mean age of 74 years, found that hypertension was the most common comorbidity (63.1% prevalence) and increased to 72.5% in over 80 year olds from Wuhan (10). Indeed, both hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes were associated with a higher odds ratio of in-hospital death with COVID-19 (9).…”