Prevalence and Influencing Factors of Chronic Disease Multimorbidity Among Elderly Inpatients in a General Practice Department.

BACKGROUND: Chronic disease multimorbidity is increasingly common among older adults and poses substantial challenges to disease management and healthcare delivery. AIMS: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of chronic disease multimorbidity among elderly inpatients in a general medicine department. METHODS: Elderly inpatients admitted between January 2022 and December 2024 were included. Demographic data and chronic disease information were collected. Ordinal logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with multimorbidity. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 71.5 ± 8.2 years, and 58.56% were male. Among all participants, 5.78% had no chronic disease, 15.67% had one chronic disease, and 78.55% had multimorbidity. The five most prevalent chronic diseases were hypertension (65.33%), diabetes or elevated blood glucose (53.11%), heart disease (46.89%), cerebrovascular disease (42.33%), and gastric or digestive system disorders (38.00%). Patients with neurocognitive and neurological disorders had the highest comorbidity burden (4.57 ± 1.46 conditions). Common two-disease combinations included heart disease plus hypertension (8.08%), while the most frequent three-disease cluster was hypertension combined with heart disease and cerebrovascular disease (7.44%). Ordinal logistic regression analysis showed that sex (OR = 0.684, P = 0.023), age (OR = 0.537, P = 0.012), occupation (OR = 0.296, P < 0.001; OR = 0.589, P = 0.050), and length of hospital stay (OR = 1.118, P < 0.001) were significantly associated with chronic disease multimorbidity among elderly inpatients. CONCLUSION: Hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease commonly co-occurred as major multimorbidity patterns, highlighting the need for targeted management. Female sex, age 60-65 years, and employment were associated with a lower likelihood of multimorbidity.