Resumen: Why was the cohort set up?
Greater life expectancy in Europe over the past few decades has been translated into an increasing burden of chronic diseases that accumulate as the population ages, whereas acute infectious diseases have been progressively pushed into the background. The incidence of conditions such as hypertension, obesity and asthma has increased dramatically worldwide, and cancer, diabetes and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases are responsible for almost 70% of global deaths.
Concurrently, the prevalence of multimorbidity (as of people affected by more than one chronic disorder) is also increasing and appears as the most common chronic condition at present.
Multimorbidity affects almost 3 in 4 individuals aged 65 years and older, although it represents a problem not only for the elderly but also for adult and even young populations, at whom prevention strategies should aim. People affected by multimorbidity often experience fragmentation of care, greater and inadequate use of health services and polypharmacy, which in turn may increase the risk of low adherence and adverse drug reactions.
All of this leads to individuals’ quality of life deterioration and higher risk of mortality. Besides, handling patients with multimorbidity represents a daily challenge for physicians and health systems... Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyx259 Año: 2018 Publicado en: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY 47, 2 (2018), 382e-384e ISSN: 0300-5771 Factor impacto JCR: 7.339 (2018) Categ. JCR: PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH rank: 6 / 185 = 0.032 (2018) - Q1 - T1 Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 4.187 - Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Epidemiology (Q1)