Downloads provided by UsageCounts
Background Multimorbidity and frailty are characteristics of aging that need individualized evaluation, and there is a 2-way causal relationship between them. Thus, considering frailty in analyses of multimorbidity is important for tailoring social and health care to the specific needs of older people. Objective This study aimed to assess how the inclusion of frailty contributes to identifying and characterizing multimorbidity patterns in people aged 65 years or older. Methods Longitudinal data were drawn from electronic health records through the SIDIAP (Sistema d’Informació pel Desenvolupament de la Investigació a l’Atenció Primària) primary care database for the population aged 65 years or older from 2010 to 2019 in Catalonia, Spain. Frailty and multimorbidity were measured annually using validated tools (eFRAGICAP, a cumulative deficit model; and Swedish National Study of Aging and Care in Kungsholmen [SNAC-K], respectively). Two sets of 11 multimorbidity patterns were obtained using fuzzy c-means. Both considered the chronic conditions of the participants. In addition, one set included age, and the other included frailty. Cox models were used to test their associations with death, nursing home admission, and home care need. Trajectories were defined as the evolution of the patterns over the follow-up period. Results The study included 1,456,052 unique participants (mean follow-up of 7.0 years). Most patterns were similar in both sets in terms of the most prevalent conditions. However, the patterns that considered frailty were better for identifying the population whose main conditions imposed limitations on daily life, with a higher prevalence of frail individuals in patterns like chronic ulcers &peripheral vascular. This set also included a dementia-specific pattern and showed a better fit with the risk of nursing home admission and home care need. On the other hand, the risk of death had a better fit with the set of patterns that did not include frailty. The change in patterns when considering frailty also led to a change in trajectories. On average, participants were in 1.8 patterns during their follow-up, while 45.1% (656,778/1,456,052) remained in the same pattern. Conclusions Our results suggest that frailty should be considered in addition to chronic diseases when studying multimorbidity patterns in older adults. Multimorbidity patterns and trajectories can help to identify patients with specific needs. The patterns that considered frailty were better for identifying the risk of certain age-related outcomes, such as nursing home admission or home care need, while those considering age were better for identifying the risk of death. Clinical and social intervention guidelines and resource planning can be tailored based on the prevalence of these patterns and trajectories.
Aging, DISEASES::Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms::Pathologic Processes::Frailty, Electronic health record, Frail Elderly, Trajectory, 610, HEALTH CARE::Environment and Public Health::Public Health::Epidemiologic Factors::Comorbidity::Multimorbidity, 613, Clustering, Cohort Studies, Fragilitat, Cluster analysis, Envelliment, PHENOMENA AND PROCESSES::Physiological Phenomena::Growth and Development::Aging, Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Aplicacions de la informàtica::Bioinformàtica, Malalties cròniques, Humans, ENFERMEDADES::afecciones patológicas, signos y síntomas::procesos patológicos::fragilidad, Aged, Original Paper, Frailty, Multimorbidity, Primary care, ATENCIÓN DE SALUD::ambiente y salud pública::salud pública::factores epidemiológicos::comorbilidad::multimorbilidad, Persones grans -- Malalties, Anàlisi de conglomerats, Atenció primària, Chronic diseases, Older people -- Diseases, Public aspects of medicine, RA1-1270, FENÓMENOS Y PROCESOS::fenómenos fisiológicos::crecimiento y desarrollo::envejecimiento
Aging, DISEASES::Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms::Pathologic Processes::Frailty, Electronic health record, Frail Elderly, Trajectory, 610, HEALTH CARE::Environment and Public Health::Public Health::Epidemiologic Factors::Comorbidity::Multimorbidity, 613, Clustering, Cohort Studies, Fragilitat, Cluster analysis, Envelliment, PHENOMENA AND PROCESSES::Physiological Phenomena::Growth and Development::Aging, Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Aplicacions de la informàtica::Bioinformàtica, Malalties cròniques, Humans, ENFERMEDADES::afecciones patológicas, signos y síntomas::procesos patológicos::fragilidad, Aged, Original Paper, Frailty, Multimorbidity, Primary care, ATENCIÓN DE SALUD::ambiente y salud pública::salud pública::factores epidemiológicos::comorbilidad::multimorbilidad, Persones grans -- Malalties, Anàlisi de conglomerats, Atenció primària, Chronic diseases, Older people -- Diseases, Public aspects of medicine, RA1-1270, FENÓMENOS Y PROCESOS::fenómenos fisiológicos::crecimiento y desarrollo::envejecimiento
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 15 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% |
| views | 91 | |
| downloads | 39 |

Views provided by UsageCounts
Downloads provided by UsageCounts