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Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Prevalence of chronic diseases among older patients in German general practices
Louis Jacob1, Jessica Breuer2, Karel Kostev3
1Department of Biology, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France.
Insights
Chronic diseases are highly prevalent in Germany's elderly population. Hypertension is the most common, with about 25% of patients having four or more chronic conditions (CDs).
Area of Science:
- Geriatric Medicine
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Chronic diseases (CDs) represent a significant health burden in aging populations worldwide.
- Understanding the prevalence of specific CDs in older adults is crucial for healthcare planning and resource allocation.
- German general practices (GPs) serve a large segment of the elderly population, making them ideal settings for epidemiological studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence of ten common chronic diseases (CDs) among individuals aged 65 and older in German general practices.
- To identify the most and least frequent CDs within this demographic.
- To assess the burden of multiple comorbidities in elderly patients.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of a large cohort of 840,319 patients aged over 65 years who visited German GPs in 2014.
- Data included diagnoses for ten specific CDs: hypertension, lipid metabolism disorders, diabetes, coronary heart disease, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart failure, stroke, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and osteoporosis.
- Prevalence was calculated as the proportion of patients diagnosed with each condition.
Main Results:
- All ten CDs were highly prevalent in the elderly cohort.
- Hypertension was the most common CD, affecting approximately 66% of both men and women.
- More than half of the patients had one to three CDs, and around 25% had four or more CDs.
Conclusions:
- The study confirms a high prevalence of chronic diseases (CDs) among the elderly population in Germany.
- Hypertension is the leading chronic condition, underscoring its public health significance in this age group.
- The high rate of multimorbidity (four or more CDs) highlights the complex healthcare needs of older German patients.
Aims:
To evaluate the prevalence of chronic diseases (CDs) among older patients in German general practices (GPs).
Methods:
A total of 840,319 patients older than 65 years (359,289 male and 481,030 female) who consulted a GP between January and December 2014 were selected. Ten different CDs were considered: hypertension, lipid metabolism, diabetes, coronary heart disease, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, stroke, chronic kidney disease and osteoporosis. The prevalence, defined as the proportion of patients diagnosed with these disorders, was estimated.
Results:
All CDs were very common in older subjects. Hypertension was the most common CD, affecting 65.7% of men and 66.1% of women. Stroke was the least frequent CD, with 6.6% of men and 5.1% of women displaying this condition. More than one out of two subjects had between one and three CDs (men: 57.7% and women: 59.3%). Approximately 25% of subjects had four or more CDs (men: 26.6% and women: 23.6%).
Conclusions:
Our study showed that the prevalence of CDs is high in the German elderly population. Hypertension was the most frequent chronic condition and around 25% of patients displayed at least four CDs.
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