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
. 2021 Feb;33(2):457-462.
doi: 10.1007/s40520-020-01773-z. Epub 2021 Feb 13.

Patterns of multimorbidity and risk of disability in community-dwelling older persons

Alessandra Marengoni #  1   2 , Roselyne Akugizibwe #  3 , Davide L Vetrano  3   4 , Albert Roso-Llorach  5   6 , Graziano Onder  7 , Anna-Karin Welmer  3   8   9   10 , Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga  3
Affiliations

Patterns of multimorbidity and risk of disability in community-dwelling older persons

Alessandra Marengoni et al. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

The aim was to analyze the association between specific patterns of multimorbidity and risk of disability in older persons. Data were gathered from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNAC-K); 2066 60 + year-old participants living in the community and free from disability at baseline were grouped according to their multimorbidity patterns and followed-up for six years. The association between multimorbidity patterns and disability in basic (ADL) and instrumental (IADL) activities of daily living was examined through multinomial models. Throughout the follow-up, 434 (21.0%) participants developed at least one ADL and 310 (15.0%) at least one IADL. Compared to the unspecific pattern, which included diseases not exceeding their expected prevalence in the total sample, belonging to the cardiovascular/anemia/dementia, the sensory impairment/cancer and the musculoskeletal/respiratory/gastrointestinal patterns was associated with a higher risk of developing both ADL and IADL, whereas subjects in the metabolic/sleep disorders pattern showed a higher risk of developing only IADL. Multimorbidity patterns are differentially associated with incident disability, which is important for the design of future prevention strategies aimed at delaying functional impairment in old age, and for a better healthcare resource planning.

Keywords: Disability; Multimorbidity patterns; Older persons.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that no organizations have attempted to influence the study or the writing of the manuscript. They have had no financial relationships in the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in influencing the submitted work and no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

References

    1. Calderón-Larrañaga A, Vetrano DL, Onder G, et al. Assessing and measuring chronic multimorbidity in the older population: a proposal for its operationalization. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2017;72:1417–1423. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rizzuto D, Melis RJF, Angleman S, et al. Effect of chronic diseases and multimorbidity on survival and functioning in elderly adults. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2017;65:1056–1060. doi: 10.1111/jgs.14868. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Marengoni A, von Strauss E, Rizzuto D, et al. The impact of chronic multimorbidity and disability on functional decline and survival in elderly persons. A community-based, longitudinal study. J Intern Med. 2009;265:288–295. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2796.2008.02017.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhang Y, Zhou L, Liu S, et al. Prevalence, correlates and outcomes of multimorbidity among the middle-aged and elderly: findings from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2020;90:104135. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2020.104135. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Marengoni A, Angleman S, Fratiglioni L. Prevalence of disability according to multimorbidity and disease clustering: a population-based study. J Comorb. 2011;1:11–18. doi: 10.15256/joc.2011.1.3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources