Prevalence of chronic diseases among older patients in German general practices

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.