Multimorbidity and its associated factors among adults aged 50 and over: A cross-sectional study in 17 European countries

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 2; p. e0246623
• Main Authors: Bezerra de Souza, Dyego Leandro, Oliveras-Fabregas, Albert, Espelt, Albert, Bosque-Prous, Marina, de Camargo Cancela, Marianna, Teixidó-Compañó, Ester, Jerez-Roig, Javier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 11.02.2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living; Adults; Age; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Arthritis; Biology and Life Sciences; Body mass; Body mass index; Body size; Bone Diseases - epidemiology; Cartilage Diseases - epidemiology; Chronic illnesses; Comorbidity; Cross-Sectional Studies; Demographic aspects; Depression - epidemiology; Diabetes; Disabled Persons - rehabilitation; Disabled Persons - statistics & numerical data; Disease; Education; Europe - epidemiology; Female; Fractures; Gender; Health aspects; Health policy; Health promotion; Health sciences; Health services; Heart attacks; Humans; Independent Living - statistics & numerical data; Loneliness; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metabolic Syndrome - epidemiology; Methods; Middle Aged; Multimorbidity; People and Places; Policies; Population; Prevalence; Psychological factors; Quality of Life; Recreation; Risk factors; Social aspects; Social conditions; Social factors; Social networks; Social organization; Social Sciences; Europe; Brazil; Spain
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246623

To estimate the prevalence of multimorbidity among European community-dwelling adults, as well as to analyse the association with gender, age, education, self-rated health, loneliness, quality of life, size of social network, Body Mass Index (BMI) and disability. A cross-sectional study based on wave 6 (2015) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) was conducted, and community-dwelling participants aged 50+ (n = 63,844) from 17 European countries were selected. Multimorbidity was defined as presenting two or more health conditions. The independent variables were gender, age group, educational level, self-rated health, loneliness, size of network, quality of life, BMI and disability (1+ limitations of basic activities of daily living). Poisson regression models with robust variance were fit for bivariate and multivariate analysis. The prevalence of multimorbidity was 28.2% (confidence interval-CI 95%: 27.5.8-29.0) among men and 34.5% (CI95%: 34.1-35.4) among women. The most common health conditions were cardiometabolic and osteoarticular diseases in both genders, and emotional disorders in younger women. A large variability in the prevalence of multimorbidity in European countries was verified, even between countries of the same region. Multimorbidity was associated with sociodemographic and physical characteristics, self-rated health, quality of life and loneliness.