BACKGROUND

Multimorbidity coexistence is a serious public health issue affecting a significant number of older adults worldwide. However, associations between multimorbidity and mortality are rarely studied in China. We assessed the effects of multimorbidity coexistence on mortality among a nationwide sample of older adults from China.

OBJECTIVE

We analyzed 10-year (2008-2018) longitudinal data of 12,337 individuals who took part in China, a nationwide survey of people aged 65 years and above. We used the Cox proportional hazard model to determine the effects of multimorbidity on the all-cause mortality risk. We also examined mortality risk between sex and age obtained through differential analysis.

RESULTS

At baseline, 30.2, 29.9, and 39.9% of participants had 0, 1, and 2 or more diseases, respectively. The cumulative follow-up of this study was 27,428 person-years (median follow-up = 2.7 years; range, 0.01-11.3 years), with 8297 deaths. The HRs (95% CIs) for all-cause mortality in participants with 1, and 2 or more conditions compared with those with none were 1.04 (0.98, 1.10) and 1.12 (1.06, 1.18), respectively. The heterogeneity analysis indicated that, the mortality risk for 80-94 years and 95-104 years group with multimorbidity coexistence is 1.12 (1.05-1.21) and 1.11 (1.01-1.23), respectively, but the mortality risk for 65-79 years group with multimorbidity coexistence was not statistically significant. The heterogeneity analysis indicated that, the mortality risk for men and women in older adults with multimorbidity coexistence is 1.15 (1.06, 1.25) and 1.08 (1.01, 1.17), respectively.

CONCLUSION

Multimorbidity coexistence is associated with an increase in an increased risk of death in older individuals, with the effect being relatively significant in those aged 80-94 years.