Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Feb;18(1):e12861.
doi: 10.1111/acel.12861. Epub 2018 Nov 29.

Trends in age-related disease burden and healthcare utilization

Vincenzo Atella  1   2 , Andrea Piano Mortari  3 , Joanna Kopinska  3 , Federico Belotti  1   3 , Francesco Lapi  4 , Claudio Cricelli  4 , Luigi Fontana  5   6
Affiliations

Trends in age-related disease burden and healthcare utilization

Vincenzo Atella et al. Aging Cell. 2019 Feb.

Abstract

Aging is a strong risk factor for many chronic diseases. However, the impact of an aging population on the prevalence of chronic diseases and related healthcare costs are not known. We used a prevalence-based approach that combines accurate clinical and drug prescription data from Health Search CSD-LPD. This is a longitudinal observational data set containing computer-based patient records collected by Italian general practitioners (GP) and up-to-date healthcare expenditures data from the SiSSI Project. The analysis is based on data collected by 900 GP on an unbalanced sample of more than 1 million patients aged 35+, observed in different time periods between 2005 and 2014. In 2014, 86% of the Italian adults older than 65 had at least one chronic condition, and 56.7% had two or more. Prevalence of multiple chronic diseases and healthcare utilization increased among older and younger adults between 2004 and 2014. Indeed, in the last 10 years, average number of prescriptions increased by approximately 26%, while laboratory and diagnostic tests by 27%. The average number of DDD prescribed increased with age in all the observed years (from 114 in 2005 to 119.9 in 2014 for the 35-50 age group and from 774.9 to 1,178.1 for the 81+ patients). The alarming rising trends in the prevalence of chronic disease and associated healthcare costs in Italy, as well as in many other developed countries, call for an urgent implementation of interventions that prevent or slow the accumulation of metabolic and molecular damage associated with multiple chronic disease.

Keywords: aging; cancer; cardiovascular disease; chronic disease; diabetes; disease burden; healthcare expenditure; hypertension.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage of patients by gender, number of chronic diseases, and wave
Figure 2
Figure 2
Average number of comorbidities by gender, age group, and wave
Figure 3
Figure 3
Share of comorbidities by number of drugs prescribed to patients, ATC class, and wave
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Atella, V. , Belotti, F. , Cricelli, C. , Dankova, D. , Kopinska, J. , Palma, A. , Piano Mortari A. (2017). The “Double Expansion of Morbidity” Hypothesis: Evidence from Italy, CEIS Research Paper, 396, February 2017.
    1. Atella, V. , Kopinska, J. A. , Medea, G. , Belotti, F. , Tosti, V. , Piano Mortari A., … Fontana L. 2015. Excess body weight increases the burden of age‐associated chronic diseases and their associated health care expenditures. Aging, 7(10), 882–892. 10.18632/aging.100833 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bleich, S. N. , Sherrod, C. , Chiang, A. , Boyd, C. , Wolff, J. , DuGoff, E. , … Anderson, G. (2015). Systematic review of programs treating high‐need and high‐cost people with multiple chronic diseases or disabilities in the United States, 2008‐2014. Preventing Chronic Disease, 12, E197. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bloom, D. E. , Cafiero, E. T. , Jané‐Llopis, E. , Abrahams‐Gessel, S. , Bloom, L. R. , Fathima, S. , … Weinstein C. (2011). The global economic burden of noncommunicable diseases. Geneva: World Economic Forum.
    1. Case, A. , Deaton, A. (2015). Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non‐Hispanic Americans in the 21st century. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015, 112(49), 15078–15083. 10.1073/pnas.1518393112 - DOI - PMC - PubMed