IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0030556.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patterns of Multimorbidity in the Aged Population. Results from the KORA-Age Study

Author

Listed:
  • Inge Kirchberger
  • Christa Meisinger
  • Margit Heier
  • Anja-Kerstin Zimmermann
  • Barbara Thorand
  • Christine S Autenrieth
  • Annette Peters
  • Karl-Heinz Ladwig
  • Angela Döring

Abstract

Multimorbidity is a common problem in aged populations with a wide range of individual and societal consequences. The objective of the study was to explore patterns of comorbidity and multimorbidity in an elderly population using different analytical approaches. Data were gathered from the population-based KORA-Age project, which included 4,127 persons aged 65–94 years living in the city of Augsburg and its two surrounding counties in Southern Germany. Information on the presence of 13 chronic conditions was collected in a standardized telephone interview and a self-administered questionnaire. Patterns of comorbidity and multimorbidity were analyzed using prevalence figures, logistic regression models and exploratory tetrachoric factor analysis. The prevalence of multimorbidity (≥2 diseases) was 58.6% in the total sample. Hypertension and diabetes (Odds Ratio [OR] 2.95, 99.58% confidence interval [CI] [2.19–3.96]), as well as hypertension and stroke (OR 2.00, 99.58% CI [1.26–3.16]) most often occurred in combination. This association was independent of age, sex and the presence of other conditions. Using factor analysis, we identified four patterns of multimorbidity: the first pattern includes cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, the second includes joint, liver, lung and eye diseases, the third covers mental and neurologic diseases and the fourth pattern includes gastrointestinal diseases and cancer. 44% of the persons were assigned to at least one of the four multimorbidity patterns; 14% could be assigned to both the cardiovascular/metabolic and the joint/liver/lung/eye pattern. Further common pairs were the mental/neurologic pattern combined with the cardiovascular/metabolic pattern (7.2%) or the joint/liver/lung/eye pattern (5.3%), respectively. Our results confirmed the existence of co-occurrence of certain diseases in elderly persons, which is not caused by chance. Some of the identified patterns of multimorbidity and their overlap may indicate common underlying pathological mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Inge Kirchberger & Christa Meisinger & Margit Heier & Anja-Kerstin Zimmermann & Barbara Thorand & Christine S Autenrieth & Annette Peters & Karl-Heinz Ladwig & Angela Döring, 2012. "Patterns of Multimorbidity in the Aged Population. Results from the KORA-Age Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0030556
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030556
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0030556
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0030556&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0030556?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marengoni, A. & Winblad, B. & Karp, A. & Fratiglioni, L., 2008. "Prevalence of chronic diseases and multimorbidity among the elderly population in Sweden," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(7), pages 1198-1200.
    2. Ingmar Schäfer & Eike-Christin von Leitner & Gerhard Schön & Daniela Koller & Heike Hansen & Tina Kolonko & Hanna Kaduszkiewicz & Karl Wegscheider & Gerd Glaeske & Hendrik van den Bussche, 2010. "Multimorbidity Patterns in the Elderly: A New Approach of Disease Clustering Identifies Complex Interrelations between Chronic Conditions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(12), pages 1-10, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bomi Park & Hye Ah Lee & Hyesook Park, 2019. "Use of latent class analysis to identify multimorbidity patterns and associated factors in Korean adults aged 50 years and older," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-13, November.
    2. Helle Gybel Juul-Larsen & Janne Petersen & Ditte Maria Sivertsen & Ove Andersen, 2017. "Prevalence and overlap of Disease Management Program diseases in older hospitalized patients," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 283-293, September.
    3. Januse Nogueira de Carvalho & Marianna de Camargo Cancela & Dyego Leandro Bezerra de Souza, 2018. "Lifestyle factors and high body mass index are associated with different multimorbidity clusters in the Brazilian population," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, November.
    4. Hossein Tabatabaei-Jafari & Jose A. Salinas-Perez & Mary Anne Furst & Nasser Bagheri & John Mendoza & David Burke & Peter McGeorge & Luis Salvador-Carulla, 2020. "Patterns of Service Provision in Older People’s Mental Health Care in Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-18, November.
    5. Jesús Carretero-Bravo & Begoña Ramos-Fiol & Esther Ortega-Martín & Víctor Suárez-Lledó & Alejandro Salazar & Cristina O’Ferrall-González & María Dueñas & Juan Luis Peralta-Sáez & Juan Luis González-Ca, 2022. "Multimorbidity Patterns and Their Association with Social Determinants, Mental and Physical Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Fabian Kleinke & Peter Penndorf & Sabina Ulbricht & Marcus Dörr & Wolfgang Hoffmann & Neeltje van den Berg, 2020. "Levels of and determinants for physical activity and physical inactivity in a group of healthy elderly people in Germany: Baseline results of the MOVING-study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-15, August.
    7. Valentin Walker & Christine Perret-Guillaume & Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot & Nelly Agrinier & Serge Hercberg & Pilar Galan & Karen E Assmann & Serge Briançon & Christine Rotonda, 2016. "Effect of Multimorbidity on Health-Related Quality of Life in Adults Aged 55 Years or Older: Results from the SU.VI.MAX 2 Cohort," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-15, December.
    8. Januse Nogueira de Carvalho & Ângelo Giuseppe Roncalli & Marianna de Camargo Cancela & Dyego Leandro Bezerra de Souza, 2017. "Prevalence of multimorbidity in the Brazilian adult population according to socioeconomic and demographic characteristics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-13, April.
    9. Arokiasamy, Perianayagam & Uttamacharya, Uttamacharya & Jain, Kshipra, 2013. "Multiple Chronic Diseases and Their Linkages with Functional health and Subjective Wellbeing among adults in the low-middle income countries: An Analysis of SAGE Wave1 Data, 2007/10," MPRA Paper 54914, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Mar 2014.
    10. Caroline A Jackson & Annette J Dobson & Leigh R Tooth & Gita D Mishra, 2016. "Lifestyle and Socioeconomic Determinants of Multimorbidity Patterns among Mid-Aged Women: A Longitudinal Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, June.
    11. Fabian Kleinke & Sabina Ulbricht & Marcus Dörr & Peter Penndorf & Wolfgang Hoffmann & Neeltje van den Berg, 2021. "A low-threshold intervention to increase physical activity and reduce physical inactivity in a group of healthy elderly people in Germany: Results of the randomized controlled MOVING study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-16, September.
    12. M Mofizul Islam & Jose M Valderas & Laurann Yen & Paresh Dawda & Tanisha Jowsey & Ian S McRae, 2014. "Multimorbidity and Comorbidity of Chronic Diseases among the Senior Australians: Prevalence and Patterns," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, January.
    13. Ignatios Ioakeim-Skoufa & Beatriz Poblador-Plou & Jonás Carmona-Pírez & Jesús Díez-Manglano & Rokas Navickas & Luis Andrés Gimeno-Feliu & Francisca González-Rubio & Elena Jureviciene & Laimis Dambraus, 2020. "Multimorbidity Patterns in the General Population: Results from the EpiChron Cohort Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-15, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Concepció Violan & Quintí Foguet-Boreu & Gemma Flores-Mateo & Chris Salisbury & Jeanet Blom & Michael Freitag & Liam Glynn & Christiane Muth & Jose M Valderas, 2014. "Prevalence, Determinants and Patterns of Multimorbidity in Primary Care: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-9, July.
    2. Gabriele Doblhammer & Gerard J van den Berg & Thomas Fritze, 2013. "Economic Conditions at the Time of Birth and Cognitive Abilities Late in Life: Evidence from Ten European Countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-12, September.
    3. Ingmar Schäfer, 2012. "Does Multimorbidity Influence the Occurrence Rates of Chronic Conditions? A Claims Data Based Comparison of Expected and Observed Prevalence Rates," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-8, September.
    4. Filipe Prazeres & Luiz Santiago, 2016. "The Knowledge, Awareness, and Practices of Portuguese General Practitioners Regarding Multimorbidity and its Management: Qualitative Perspectives from Open-Ended Questions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-14, November.
    5. Jianxing Yu & Fangying Song & Yingying Li & Zhou Zheng & Huanhuan Jia & Yuzhe Sun & Lina Jin & Xihe Yu, 2020. "Multimorbidity Analysis of 13 Systemic Diseases in Northeast China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-12, March.
    6. Ignatios Ioakeim-Skoufa & Beatriz Poblador-Plou & Jonás Carmona-Pírez & Jesús Díez-Manglano & Rokas Navickas & Luis Andrés Gimeno-Feliu & Francisca González-Rubio & Elena Jureviciene & Laimis Dambraus, 2020. "Multimorbidity Patterns in the General Population: Results from the EpiChron Cohort Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-15, June.
    7. de Bruin, Simone R. & Versnel, Nathalie & Lemmens, Lidwien C. & Molema, Claudia C.M. & Schellevis, François G. & Nijpels, Giel & Baan, Caroline A., 2012. "Comprehensive care programs for patients with multiple chronic conditions: A systematic literature review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 108-145.
    8. Bomi Park & Hye Ah Lee & Hyesook Park, 2019. "Use of latent class analysis to identify multimorbidity patterns and associated factors in Korean adults aged 50 years and older," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-13, November.
    9. Joël Coste & José M Valderas & Laure Carcaillon-Bentata, 2022. "The epidemiology of multimorbidity in France: Variations by gender, age and socioeconomic factors, and implications for surveillance and prevention," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(4), pages 1-21, April.
    10. Palmer, Katie & Marengoni, Alessandra & Forjaz, Maria João & Jureviciene, Elena & Laatikainen, Tiina & Mammarella, Federica & Muth, Christiane & Navickas, Rokas & Prados-Torres, Alexandra & Rijken, Mi, 2018. "Multimorbidity care model: Recommendations from the consensus meeting of the Joint Action on Chronic Diseases and Promoting Healthy Ageing across the Life Cycle (JA-CHRODIS)," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 4-11.
    11. Héctor Pifarré i Arolas & Christian Dudel, 2019. "An Ordinal Measure of Population Health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 1219-1243, June.
    12. Keloharju, Matti & Knüpfer, Samuli & Tåg, Joacim, 2020. "CEO Health," Working Paper Series 1326, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 30 May 2022.
    13. Maria João Forjaz & Carmen Rodriguez-Blazquez & Inmaculada Guerrero-Fernández de Alba & Antonio Gimeno-Miguel & Kevin Bliek-Bueno & Alexandra Prados-Torres & on behalf of the CHRODIS Expert Group on M, 2019. "Application of the JA-CHRODIS Integrated Multimorbidity Care Model (IMCM) to a Case Study of Diabetes and Mental Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-13, December.
    14. Caroline A Jackson & Annette J Dobson & Leigh R Tooth & Gita D Mishra, 2016. "Lifestyle and Socioeconomic Determinants of Multimorbidity Patterns among Mid-Aged Women: A Longitudinal Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, June.
    15. Laura Nedzinskienė & Elena Jurevičienė & Žydrūnė Visockienė & Agnė Ulytė & Roma Puronaitė & Vytautas Kasiulevičius & Edita Kazėnaitė & Greta Burneikaitė & Rokas Navickas, 2021. "Structure and Distribution of Health Care Costs across Age Groups of Patients with Multimorbidity in Lithuania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-12, March.
    16. Struckmann, Verena & Leijten, Fenna R.M. & van Ginneken, Ewout & Kraus, Markus & Reiss, Miriam & Spranger, Anne & Boland, Melinde R.S. & Czypionka, Thomas & Busse, Reinhard & Rutten-van Mölken, Mauree, 2018. "Relevant models and elements of integrated care for multi-morbidity: Results of a scoping review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 23-35.
    17. Ignatios Ioakeim-Skoufa & Mercedes Clerencia-Sierra & Aida Moreno-Juste & Carmen Elías de Molins Peña & Beatriz Poblador-Plou & Mercedes Aza-Pascual-Salcedo & Francisca González-Rubio & Alexandra Prad, 2022. "Multimorbidity Clusters in the Oldest Old: Results from the EpiChron Cohort," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-15, August.
    18. Althea La Foucade & Gershwin Davis & Nelleen Baboolal & Don Bethelmie & Christine Laptiste & Haleema Ali-Sisbane & Karl Theodore, 2020. "The socio-economic determinants of multimorbidity among the elderly population in Trinidad and Tobago," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, September.
    19. María Luisa Delgado-Losada & Jaime Bouhaben & Eduardo Arroyo-Pardo & Aránzazu Aparicio & Ana María López-Parra, 2022. "Loneliness, Depression, and Genetics in the Elderly: Prognostic Factors of a Worse Health Condition?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-29, November.
    20. Tzu-Chueh Wang & Pou-Jen Ku & Hai-Lin Lu & Kung-Chuan Hsu & Damien Trezise & Hue-Yu Wang, 2019. "Association between Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use and Chronic Diseases in the Elderly," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-12, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0030556. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.