The Current Status and Influencing Factors of Multiple Chronic Conditions among the Elderly Aged 60 and above in Gansu Province

Background With the acceleration of population aging in my country, the multiple chronic conditions in the elderly has become increasingly common. This not only seriously affects the quality of life of the elderly, but also places a heavy burden on families and society. Gansu is a province with a relatively high aging population in the northwest region, and it is urgent to pay attention to the multiple chronic conditions among the elderly. Objective In order to understand the current status and influencing factors of multiple chronic conditions among the elderly in Gansu Province, and provide a reference basis for the prevention, treatment and management of multiple chronic conditions in Gansu Province. Methods From 2023-07-15 to 2023-08-10, a multi-stage stratified random cluster sampling method was used to select 20 000 elderly people aged ≥60 years old in Gansu Province for a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was designed by the research team itself and mainly investigated the prevalence of 15 common chronic diseases among the elderly, as well as their demographic characteristics and family circumstances. In the end, 19 038 valid questionnaires were collected, and the effective questionnaire recovery rate was 95.19%. Results The prevalence rate of chronic diseases among the elderly in Gansu Province was 74.78% (14 236/19 038), and the incidence rate of multiple chronic conditions was 38.97% (7 419/19 038). The top six chronic diseases with the highest prevalence were hypertension[9 693 (50.91%) ], arthritis or rheumatism[3 648 (19.16%) ], and heart disease[3 418 (17.95%) ], diabetes or elevated blood sugar[3 033 (15.93%) ], chronic lung disease[1 645 (8.64%) ], stroke[1 548 (8.13%) ]. Common comorbidity combination patterns are all related to hypertension. The top-ranked binary comorbidity pattern is hypertension + diabetes or elevated blood sugar[2 112 (11.09%) ], and the top-ranked ternary comorbidity pattern is hypertension + diabetes or elevated blood sugar + heart disease[532 (2.79%) ]. The results of multi-factor Logistic regression analysis showed that gender, age, ethnicity, pre-retirement occupation, spouse, number of children, relationship with children, self-rated health status, self-rated life satisfaction, and loneliness are influencing factors for the occurrence of multiple chronic conditions in the elderly (P<0.05) . Conclusion The incidence of multiple chronic conditions among the elderly in Gansu Province is lower than the national average. Multiple chronic conditions occurs among the elderly who are female, elderly, Tibetan, have a job before retirement, have a normal relationship with their children, have average/poor self-rated health, and have average self-rated life satisfaction. The risk of chronic disease is higher, and the risk of multiple chronic conditions is lower for the elderly who have a spouse, fewer children, and do not feel lonely. Relevant departments should focus on the prevention, treatment and management of common multiple chronic conditions in the elderly, promptly intervene in variable risk factors, strengthen the elderly's awareness of self-health management, and improve the multiple chronic conditions management system in primary medical and health institutions.