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Australian Family Physician
Australian Family Physician

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Volume 42, Issue 12, December 2013

Multimorbidity

Joan Henderson Christopher Harrison Graeme C Miller Helena Britt
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This paper reports on the proportion of patients with multiple chronic conditions at GP encounters, using data from a 2008–2009 BEACH 
sub-study that measured the prevalence of chronic conditions.4 Of the 8707 patients sampled from 290 GPs, approximately half (47.4%, 95% CI: 45.2–49.6) had two or more chronic conditions. Figure 1 clearly shows that the proportion of patients with multiple chronic conditions at encounters rises significantly with age; about 90% of patients aged 80 years or more had two or more chronic conditions, while nearly 30% had seven or more.

Figure 1. Proportion of patients with different numbers of multiple chronic conditions at GP encounters by patient age

Figure 1. Proportion of patients with different numbers of multiple chronic conditions at GP encounters by patient age

This study has shown that the prevalence of multiple chronic conditions in patients does increase with patient age, and that a significant proportion of older patients have seven or more chronic conditions. With the ageing of the population, more than half of GP encounters will soon be with patients who have multiple chronic conditions. This suggests that we should reconsider our current health care system’s focus on single disease, and provides further evidence that in the future Australia will need to maintain a strong primary health care system, with GPs having a central role.

Competing interests: None.
Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; not peer reviewed.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the GP participants in the BEACH program and all members of the BEACH team. Financial contributors to BEACH between 2008 and 2010: Abbott Australasia; AstraZeneca Pty Ltd (Australia); Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing; Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd; Merck, Sharpe and Dohme (Australia) Pty Ltd; National Prescribing Service; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Australia Pty Ltd; Pfizer Australia; Sanofi-Aventis Australia Pty Ltd; Wyeth Australia Pty Ltd.


References
  1. Britt HC, Harrison CM, Miller GC, Knox SA. Prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity in Australia. Med J Aust 2008;189:72–77. Search PubMed
  2. Fortin M, Soubhi H, Hudon C, Bayliss EA, van den AM. Multimorbidity’s many challenges. BMJ 2007;334:1016–17. Search PubMed
  3. Starfield B. Challenges to primary care from co- and multi-morbidity. Prim Health Care Res Dev 2011;12:1–2. Search PubMed
  4. Harrison C, Britt H, Miller G, Henderson J. Prevalence of chronic conditions in Australia. PLoS One 2013;8:e67494. Search PubMed
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