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. 2019 Aug 18;9(8):e024268.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024268.

Prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity among the elderly in China: a cross-sectional study using national survey data

Ran Zhang  1 , Yun Lu  1 , Liuyan Shi  1 , Songlin Zhang  1 , Feng Chang  2
Affiliations

Prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity among the elderly in China: a cross-sectional study using national survey data

Ran Zhang et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: Examination of the prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity among the elderly in China.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: More than 10 000 households in 28 of the 34 provinces of mainland China.

Participants: 11 707 Chinese adults aged 60 and over.

Primary outcome measures: Prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity among the participants. Relative risks were calculated to estimate the probability of up to 14 chronic conditions coexisting with each other. Observed-to-expected (O/E) ratios were used to analyse the patterns of multimorbidity.

Results: Multimorbidity was present in 43.6% of respondents from the sample population, with women having the greater prevalence compared with men. There were 804 different comorbidity combinations identified, including 76 dyad combinations and 169 triad combinations. The top 10 morbidity dyads and triads accounted for 69.01% and 47.05% of the total dyad and triad combinations observed, respectively. Among the 14 chronic conditions included in the study, asthma, stroke, heart attack and six other chronic conditions were the main components of multimorbidity due to their high relative risk ratios. The most frequently occurring clusters with higher O/E ratios were stroke along with emotional, nervous, or psychiatric problems; memory-related diseases together emotional, nervous, or psychiatric problems; and memory-related diseases and asthma accompanied by chronic lung diseases and asthma.

Conclusions: The results of this study highlight the high prevalence of multimorbidity in the elderly population in China. Further studies are required to understand the aetiology of multimorbidity, and future primary healthcare policies should be made while taking multimorbidity into consideration.

Keywords: China; cross-sectional study; multimorbidity; observed-to-expected ratio; prevalence.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart for selecting the study sample from the original sample population. CHARLS, China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Frequency and percentage of people aged over 60 suffering from different diseases based on China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey data.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Prevalence rates of chronic condition in elderly people over 60 years old based on China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey data. MCC, multiple chronic conditions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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