Combined multimorbidity and polypharmacy patterns in the elderly : a cross-sectional study in primary health care
Stafford, Grant (Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol)
Villén, Noemí (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Pediatria, d'Obstetrícia i Ginecologia i de Medicina Preventiva)
Roso-Llorach, Albert (Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol)
Troncoso-Mariño, Amelia (Institut Català de la Salut)
Monteagudo, Mònica (Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol)
Violán, Concepció (Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol)

Date:	2021
Abstract:	Background: The acquisition of multiple chronic diseases, known as multimorbidity, is common in the elderly population, and it is often treated with the simultaneous consumption of several prescription drugs, known as polypharmacy. These two concepts are inherently related and cause an undue burden on the individual. The aim of this study was to identify combined multimorbidity and polypharmacy patterns for the elderly population in Catalonia. Methods: A cross-sectional study using electronic health records from 2012 was conducted. A mapping process was performed linking chronic disease categories to the drug categories indicated for their treatment. A soft clustering technique was then carried out on the final mapped categories. Results: 916,619 individuals were included, with 93. 1% meeting the authors' criteria for multimorbidity and 49. 9% for polypharmacy. A seven-cluster solution was identified: one non-specific (Cluster 1) and six specific, corresponding to diabetes (Cluster 2), neurological and musculoskeletal, female dominant (Clusters 3 and 4) and cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and renal diseases (Clusters 5 and 6), and multi-system diseases (Cluster 7). Conclusions: This study utilized a mapping process combined with a soft clustering technique to determine combined patterns of multimorbidity and polypharmacy in the elderly population, identifying overrepresentation in six of the seven clusters with chronic disease and chronic disease-drug categories. These results could be applied to clinical practice guidelines in order to better attend to patient needs. This study can serve as the foundation for future longitudinal regarding relationships between multimorbidity and polypharmacy.
Grants:	Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017SGR578 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PI16/00639 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad RD16/0007/0001
Note:	Altres ajuts: Pla Estratègic de Recerca i Innovació en Salut (PERIS), SLT002/16/00058
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Multimorbidity ; Polypharmacy ; Elderly ; Primary healthcare ; Chronic disease ; Clustering ; Combined patterns ; Machine learning
Published in:	International journal of environmental research and public health, Vol. 18 (january 2021) , p. 9216, ISSN 1660-4601

DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18179216
PMID: 34501805

22 p, 1.1 MB

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