Prevalence of secondary care multimorbidity in mid-life and its association with premature mortality in a large longitudinal cohort study

Marjorie C Johnston* (Corresponding Author), Corrinda Black, Stewart W Mercer, Gordon J Prescott, Michael A Crilly

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Multimorbidity is the coexistence of two or more health conditions in an individual. Multimorbidity in younger adults is increasingly recognised as an important challenge. We assessed the prevalence of secondary care multimorbidity in mid-life and its association with premature mortality over 15 years of follow-up, in the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s (ACONF) cohort.

METHOD: A prospective cohort study using linked electronic health and mortality records. Scottish ACONF participants were linked to their Scottish Morbidity Record hospital episode data and mortality records. Multimorbidity was defined as two or more conditions and was assessed using healthcare records in 2001 when the participants were aged between 45 and 51 years. The association between multimorbidity and mortality over 15 years of follow-up (to ages 60-66 years) was assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression. There was also adjustment for key covariates: age, gender, social class at birth, intelligence at age 7, secondary school type, educational attainment, alcohol, smoking, body mass index and adult social class.

RESULTS: Of 9625 participants (51% males), 3% had multimorbidity. The death rate per 1000 person-years was 28.4 (95% CI 23.2 to 34.8) in those with multimorbidity and 5.7 (95% CI 5.3 to 6.1) in those without. In relation to the reference group of those with no multimorbidity, those with multimorbidity had a mortality HR of 4.5 (95% CI 3.4 to 6.0) over 15 years and this association remained when fully adjusted for the covariates (HR 2.5 (95% CI 1.5 to 4.0)).

CONCLUSION: Multimorbidity prevalence was 3% in mid-life when measured using secondary care administrative data. Multimorbidity in mid-life was associated with premature mortality.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere033622
Pages (from-to)1-11
Number of pages11
JournalBMJ Open
Volume10
Issue number5
Early online date5 May 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 May 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding MCJ was funded by a Clinical Academic Fellowship from the Chief Scientist Office, Scotland (CAF/13/03), and was a PhD student affiliated with the Farr Institute of Health Informatics and Research Scotland.

Contributors Study conception: MCJ. Study design: MCJ, CB, SWM, GJP and MAC. Study analysis: MCJ. Supervision and contribution to study analysis: CB, SWM, GJP and MAC. Drafting of article: MCJ. Critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: MCJ, CB, SWM, GJP and MAC. Final approval of article: MCJ, CB, SWM, GJP and MAC

Keywords

  • cohort
  • multimorbidity
  • premature mortality

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