Prevalence, trend and contributing factors of geriatric syndromes among older Swedes: results from the Stockholm County Council Public Health Surveys

BACKGROUND: Evidence is scarce on the trend in prevalence of geriatric syndromes (GS). This study assesses how GS prevalence changes over time in Swedish older community-dwellers by socio-demography, and attempts to highlight factors that may contribute to explain the trend. METHODS: Data from Stockholm County Council Public Health Surveys in 2006, 2010 and 2014 were used. Old adults, aged 65–84 years, with measurements on GS items were identified. Thus, a total of 17,560 participants were selected in 2006 (n = 6295), 2010 (n = 6733) and 2014 (n = 4532). Data on socio-demographics, lifestyles and health status were collected through questionnaires. GS was defined as having at least one of the following: insomnia, urinary incontinence, severe hearing/vision problem, functional decline, fall and depressive disorder. Logistic regression was performed to assess the prevalence trend as well as the change in the associations of sociodemographic factors, health behaviors and chronic disease with GS. RESULTS: From 2006 to 2014, the prevalence of GS remained stable (P(trend) = 0.54). However, among old adults born outside Nordic countries, it increased significantly from 73.0% in 2006, 78.0% in 2010 to 83.0% in 2014 (P(trend) < 0.001). Furthermore, the association with GS became stronger for born outside Nordic counties (P(trend) < 0.001) and weaker for sedentary lifestyles (P(trend) = 0.004), whereas the association did not change for other sociodemographic factors, health behaviors and chronic disease (all P(trend) > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: At population level, GS prevalence remained stable at a high level among Swedish old community-dwellers. There are noteworthy differences in GS trend between population groups, in particular to the detriment of older adults born outside Nordic countries. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12877-018-1018-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.