• David Chartash, Aidan Gilson, TaylorR AndrewRAFrom the Section for Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT (DC, RAT), School of Medicine, University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin (DC), Department of Emergency, and Laura C Hart.
• From the Section for Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT (DC, RAT), School of Medicine, University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin (DC), Department of Emergency Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT (AG, RAT), Primary Care Pediatrics, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH (LCH), Departments of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, The Ohio State University School of Medicine, Columbus, OH (LCH).
• J Am Board Fam Med. 2024 Mar 1; 37 (2): 251260251-260.

IntroductionMultimorbidity rates are both increasing in prevalence across age ranges, and also increasing in diagnostic importance within and outside the family medicine clinic. Here we aim to describe the course of multimorbidity across the lifespan.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort study across 211,953 patients from a large northeastern health care system. Past medical histories were collected in the form of ICD-10 diagnostic codes. Rates of multimorbidity were calculated from comorbid diagnoses defined from the ICD10 codes identified in the past medical histories.ResultsWe identify 4 main age groups of diagnosis and multimorbidity. Ages 0 to 10 contain diagnoses which are infectious or respiratory, whereas ages 10 to 40 are related to mental health. From ages 40 to 70 there is an emergence of alcohol use disorders and cardiometabolic disorders. And ages 70 to 90 are predominantly long-term sequelae of the most common cardiometabolic disorders. The mortality of the whole population over the study period was 5.7%, whereas the multimorbidity with the highest mortality across the study period was Circulatory Disorders-Circulatory Disorders at 23.1%.ConclusionThe results from this study provide a comparison for the presence of multimorbidity within age cohorts longitudinally across the population. These patterns of comorbidity can assist in the allocation to practice resources that will best support the common conditions that patients need assistance with, especially as the patients transition between pediatric, adult, and geriatric care. Future work examining and comparing multimorbidity indices is warranted.© Copyright 2024 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

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