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 Apr 28;79(1):60.
doi: 10.1186/s13690-021-00583-7.

Chronic disease multimorbidity among the Canadian population: prevalence and associated lifestyle factors

Nigatu Regassa Geda  1   2 , Bonnie Janzen  3 , Punam Pahwa  3   4
Affiliations

Chronic disease multimorbidity among the Canadian population: prevalence and associated lifestyle factors

Nigatu Regassa Geda et al. Arch Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Chronic diseases is increasingly becoming one of the most pressing public health concerns in most part of the world, including the Canadian population. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of multimorbidity in the general population based on 14 major chronic diseases and examine associations with lifestyle/behavioral factors.

Methods: The data source was the 2015-2016 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). The CCHS is a cross sectional, complex multi-stage survey based on information collected from 109,659 participants aged 12+, covering all provinces and territories. Multimorbidity was defined as the co-occurrence of two or more chronic diseases within a person. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the key determinants of multimorbidity.

Results: The prevalence of multimorbidity was 33 %. Adjusting for sociodemographic variables, there was an increased odd of multimorbidity for those having a sedentary lifestyle (AOR = 1.06; CI:1.01-1.11) and being obese (AOR = 1.37; CI:1.32-1.43) or overweight (AOR = 2.65; CI: 2.54-2.76). There were two statistically significant interactions, between sex and smoking, and between immigration status and alcohol intake. Smoking was more strongly associated with multimorbidity in females than males. The association between alcohol intake and multimorbidity was also dependent upon immigration status.

Conclusions: Given the high prevalence of multimorbidity among the general Canadian population, policy makers and service providers should give more attention to the behavioral/lifestyle factors which significantly predicted multimorbidity. Policy and program efforts that promote a healthy lifestyle should be a priority.

Keywords: Canada; Chronic disease; Lifestyle factors; Morbidity; Multimorbidity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interest, both financial and nonfinancial.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Percentage distribution of study participants by type of self-reported chronic morbidity
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
. Interaction plots for sex and smoking (left), and immigration and alcohol intake(right), on additive (top) and multiplicative (bottom) scales
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. WHO. Multimorbidity: Technical Series on Safer Primary Care. Geneva; 2016.
    1. Violan C, Foguet-Boreu Q, Flores-Mateo G, Salisbury C, Blom J, Freitag M, et al. Prevalence, determinants and patterns of multimorbidity in primary care: a systematic review of observational studies. PLoS One. 2014;9(7)::e102149. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102149. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sawyer SM, Drew S, Yeo MS, Britto M. Adolescents with a chronic condition: challenges living, challenges treating. Lancet. 2007;369(957):1481–9. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60370-5. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Van den Akker M, Buntinx F, Roos S, Knottnerus J. Problems in determining occurrence rates of multimorbidity. J Clin Epidemiol. 2001;54(7):675–9. doi: 10.1016/S0895-4356(00)00358-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Allison Feely Lisa M. Lix Kim Reimer. Estimating multimorbidity prevalence with the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System [Internet]. 2017. Available from: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/hea.... - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources