Complex health problems among the oldest old in Sweden: increased prevalence rates between 1992 and 2002 and stable rates thereafter

Abstract

Studies of health trends in older populations usually focus on single health indicators. We include multiple medical and functional indicators, which together indicate the broader impact of health problems experienced by individuals and the need for integrated care from several providers of medical and long-term care. The study identified severe problems in three health domains (diseases/ symptoms, mobility, and cognition/communication)

Prevalence, trend and contributing factors of geriatric syndromes among older Swedes: results from the Stockholm County Council Public Health Surveys

“…There was very few evidence from previous studies on the trend of GS prevalence. One study in Swedish older-old adults (aged 77 years and older) assessed the trend in complex health problems defined as having severe problems in two or three domains (diseases/symptoms, mobility, and cognitive/communication) [25]. They found that the prevalence decreased significantly from 1992 to 2002 but remained stable from 2002 to 2011 [25].…”

“…One study in Swedish older-old adults (aged 77 years and older) assessed the trend in complex health problems defined as having severe problems in two or three domains (diseases/symptoms, mobility, and cognitive/communication) [25]. They found that the prevalence decreased significantly from 1992 to 2002 but remained stable from 2002 to 2011 [25]. However, the comparison between our study and theirs was limited by the difference in study participants (e.g., our participants were younger) and variables of interest (i.e., we included different domains for GS definition).…”

Pitkäaikaissairaudet ja monisairastavuus hyvin vanhoilla sekä niiden yhteys toimintakykyyn ja itse arvioituun terveyteen – Tervaskannot 90+ -tutkimus

“…Iäkkäillä yleiset sydän-ja verisuonisairaudet sekä dementia ja masennus esiintyvät usein yhdessä. Dementia ja masennus liittyvät usein myös muihin sairauksiin, kuten lonkkamurtumaan (Marengoni, Rizutto, Wang, Winblad & Fratiglioni 2009 (Meinow, Kåreholt, Thorslund & Parker 2015).…”

“It is like living in a diminishing world”: older persons’ experiences of living with long-term health problems – prior to the STRENGTH intervention

“…Multimorbidity increases significantly with age (Afshar et al, 2015;Gupta, 2016) and the most common state for 65-70% of 75-year-old persons is to have at least two chronic diseases (Abad-Díez et al, 2014;Fratiglioni et al, 2010). The predominant disabilities affecting older persons partly arise from age-related issues such as sensory impairment, related to vision and hearing (Fratiglioni et al, 2010;GBD 2015, DALYs andHALE Collaborators, 2016;WHO, 2015) and walking difficulties (GBD 2015, DALYs andHALE Collaborators, 2016;Meinow et al, 2015;WHO, 2015), and also partly from noncommunicable diseases. Common diagnoses in older persons are heart diseases, chronic respiratory disorders (The National Board of Health and Welfare, 2018; WHO, 2015), stroke, cancer, dementia (WHO, 2015), depressive disorders, osteoarthritis (GBD 2015, DALYs andHALE Collaborators, 2016) and diabetes (GBD 2015, DALYs andHALE Collaborators, 2016;The National Board of Health and Welfare, 2018).…”

“…Common diagnoses in older persons are heart diseases, chronic respiratory disorders (The National Board of Health and Welfare, 2018; WHO, 2015), stroke, cancer, dementia (WHO, 2015), depressive disorders, osteoarthritis (GBD 2015, DALYs andHALE Collaborators, 2016) and diabetes (GBD 2015, DALYs andHALE Collaborators, 2016;The National Board of Health and Welfare, 2018). Impairment related to longterm pain, for instance, in back and neck through musculoskeletal conditions (Blyth et al, 2019;GBD 2015, DALYs andHALE Collaborators, 2016), dizziness, sleeping difficulties (Fratiglioni et al, 2010), fatigue and memory loss (Meinow et al, 2015) are examples of common health problems in older persons, not always viewed as a disease and labelled as a diagnosis (Fratiglioni et al, 2010;WHO, 2015). According to Toombs (1993), a disease is understood from a medical perspective as an objective and measurable phenomenon and differs from the patients' subjective experience regardless of its manifestation in terms of a particular disease state, described as an illness.…”