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Observational Study
. 2014 Jun 17:14:75.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2318-14-75.

Age and gender differences in the prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity in the older population

José María Abad-Díez  1 , Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga, Antonio Poncel-Falcó, Beatriz Poblador-Plou, José Manuel Calderón-Meza, Antoni Sicras-Mainar, Mercedes Clerencia-Sierra, Alexandra Prados-Torres
Affiliations
Observational Study

Age and gender differences in the prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity in the older population

José María Abad-Díez et al. BMC Geriatr. .

Abstract

Background: The coexistence of several chronic diseases in one same individual, known as multimorbidity, is an important challenge facing health care systems in developed countries. Recent studies have revealed the existence of multimorbidity patterns clustering systematically associated distinct clinical entities. We sought to describe age and gender differences in the prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity in men and women over 65 years.

Methods: Observational retrospective multicentre study based on diagnostic information gathered from electronic medical records of 19 primary care centres in Aragon and Catalonia. Multimorbidity patterns were identified through exploratory factor analysis. We performed a descriptive analysis of previously obtained patterns (i.e. cardiometabolic (CM), mechanical (MEC) and psychogeriatric (PG)) and the diseases included in the patterns stratifying by sex and age group.

Results: 67.5% of the aged population suffered two or more chronic diseases. 32.2% of men and 45.3% of women were assigned to at least one specific pattern of multimorbidity, and 4.6% of men and 8% of women presented more than one pattern simultaneously. Among women over 65 years the most frequent pattern was the MEC pattern (33.3%), whereas among men it was the CM pattern (21.2%). While the prevalence of the CM and MEC patterns decreased with age, the PG pattern showed a higher prevalence in the older age groups.

Conclusions: Significant gender differences were observed in the prevalence of multimorbidity patterns, women showing a higher prevalence of the MEC and PG patterns, as well as a higher degree of pattern overlapping, probably due to a higher life expectancy and/or worse health. Future studies on multimorbidity patterns should take into account these differences and, therefore, the study of multimorbidity and its impact should be stratified by age and sex.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overlapping of multimorbidity patterns in men and women. CM: cardiometabolic, MEC: mechanical, PG: psychogeriatric. Proportions inside the circles represent the frequency of non-overlapping disease patterns.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Prevalence of multimorbidity patterns by sex and age groups. CM: cardiometabolic, MEC: mechanical, PG: psychogeriatric.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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