Understanding Multimorbidity in the Elderly

Understanding Multimorbidity in the Elderly

Adil Hamad Alharthi, Khalid Abdullah Almotari, Abdulaziz Ali Alghamdi
Copyright: © 2023 |Pages: 24
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-2354-7.ch002
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Abstract

Multimorbidity is the presence of two or more long-term conditions which are those that cannot be currently cured but can be controlled. Chronic conditions are the leading cause of death globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicted that 87% of deaths in high income countries were attributed to chronic conditions and the proportion of worldwide deaths caused by chronic conditions is expected to rise from 59% in 2002 to 69% in 2030. Fifty-five to ninety-eight percent of people 60 years or older are affected by two or more chronic diseases and patients with multimorbidity account for up to 80% of consultations with general practitioners and virtually all consultations with Geriatricians. Among the reasons are that Co-occurring diseases interact with each other increasing the risk of negative events beyond the sum of the risk of each disease alone.
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Introduction

Multimorbidity is a phenomenon that is prevalent worldwide, it’s common in the
elderly and it’s the norm rather than the exception, those healthcare providers who help the elderly need to understand and appreciate Multimorbidity to be able to deliver better care to their patient. currently multimorbidity is still suffering from lack of sufficient longitudinal studies to shed light on its risk factors, its disease clustering and its hazardous consequences. It's also suffering from lack of sufficient practical guidelines to orient healthcare providers, specifically primary care practitioners about its importance as well as its management requirements and prevention benefits. most of our knowledge about multimorbidity is prevalence and associated risk factors which are without an evidence base causation relationship. so, this important and relatively new concept is clearly with a knowledge gap, on the other hand new articles are enriching the literature about multimorbidity very rapidly.

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