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Carrasco-Ribelles LA, Cabrera-Bean M, Danés-Castells M, Zabaleta-Del-Olmo E, Roso-Llorach A, Violán C. Contribution of Frailty to Multimorbidity Patterns and Trajectories: Longitudinal Dynamic Cohort Study of Aging People. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2023; 9:e45848. [PMID: 37368462 PMCID: PMC10365626 DOI: 10.2196/45848] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2023] [Revised: 05/02/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucía A Carrasco-Ribelles
- Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol I Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Barcelona, Spain
- Signal Processing and Communications Group (SPCOM), Department of Signal Theory and Communications, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain
- Unitat de Suport a la Recerca Metropolitana Nord, Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol I Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Mataró, Spain
- Grup de REcerca en Impacte de les Malalties Cròniques i les seves Trajectòries (GRIMTRA) (2021 SGR 01537), Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol I Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Barcelona, Spain
- Network for Research on Chronicity, Primary Care, and Health Promotion (RICAPPS) (RD21/0016/0029), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Margarita Cabrera-Bean
- Signal Processing and Communications Group (SPCOM), Department of Signal Theory and Communications, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marc Danés-Castells
- Unitat de Suport a la Recerca Metropolitana Nord, Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol I Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Mataró, Spain
| | - Edurne Zabaleta-Del-Olmo
- Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol I Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Barcelona, Spain
- Grup de REcerca en Impacte de les Malalties Cròniques i les seves Trajectòries (GRIMTRA) (2021 SGR 01537), Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol I Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Barcelona, Spain
- Network for Research on Chronicity, Primary Care, and Health Promotion (RICAPPS) (RD21/0016/0029), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
- Gerència Territorial de Barcelona, Institut Català de la Salut, Barcelona, Spain
- Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
| | - Albert Roso-Llorach
- Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol I Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Barcelona, Spain
- Grup de REcerca en Impacte de les Malalties Cròniques i les seves Trajectòries (GRIMTRA) (2021 SGR 01537), Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol I Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Barcelona, Spain
- Network for Research on Chronicity, Primary Care, and Health Promotion (RICAPPS) (RD21/0016/0029), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Concepción Violán
- Unitat de Suport a la Recerca Metropolitana Nord, Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol I Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Mataró, Spain
- Grup de REcerca en Impacte de les Malalties Cròniques i les seves Trajectòries (GRIMTRA) (2021 SGR 01537), Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol I Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Barcelona, Spain
- Network for Research on Chronicity, Primary Care, and Health Promotion (RICAPPS) (RD21/0016/0029), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
- Fundació Institut d'Investigació en ciències de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), Badalona, Spain
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