Multimorbidity among elderly in Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: Multimorbidity among the elderly is a major public health problem in most of the developing countries, including Bangladesh, where the population is moving towards aging. Multimorbidity was defined as the co‐occurrence of at least two chronic diseases in a person whether as a coincidence or not. Little attention has been paid to the study of the prevalence of multimorbidity among the elderly in Bangladesh. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of multimorbidity among hospitalized elderly. METHODS: A cross‐sectional study was conducted in two tertiary level hospitals with a sample of 566 adults aged 60 years or more. Data were collected from medical examination reports at the hospital and using a semi‐structured interview schedule through an in‐person interview. Descriptive statistics were used to measure the prevalence of multimorbidity. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of multimorbidity among the elderly was 56.4% and the prevalence was higher among females (64.18%) than males (54.17%). The most prevalent conditions were hypertension (33.0%), diabetes (27.6%), ischemic heart disease (12.0%), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (9%). CONCLUSION: A high prevalence of multimorbidity suggests that there is an urgent need to develop geriatric health‐care services. Policymakers should pay attention to developing effective intervention strategies and programs to reduce the burden of multimorbidity.