A network-based approach to explore comorbidity patterns among community-dwelling older adults living alone

This study employed a network-based approach to investigate the comorbidity patterns of community-dwelling older adults living alone. The sample comprised a cross-sectional cohort of adults 65 or older living alone in a Korean city (n = 1041; mean age = 77.7 years, 77.6% women). A comorbidity network analysis that estimates networks aggregated from measures of significant co-occurrence between pairs of diseases was employed to investigate comorbid associations between 31 chronic conditions. A cluster detection algorithm was employed to identify specific clusters of comorbidities. The association strength was expressed as the observed-to-expected ratio (OER). As a result, fifteen diseases were interconnected within the network (OER >  1,p-value  <  .05). While hypertension had a high prevalence, osteoporosis was the most central disease, co-occurring with numerous other diseases. The strongest associations among comorbidities were found between thyroid disease and urinary incontinence, chronic otitis media and osteoporosis, gastric duodenal ulcer/gastritis and anemia, and depression and gastric duodenal ulcer/gastritis (OER >  1.85). Three distinct clusters were identified as follows: (a) cataracts, osteoporosis, chronic otitis media, osteoarthritis/rheumatism, low back pain/sciatica, urinary incontinence, post-accident sequelae, and thyroid diseases; (b) hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension; and (c) dep ression, skin disease, gastr...
Source: AGE - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research