Multimorbidity patterns and disease co‐occurrence networks in older adults with diabetes: A national population‐based network analysis
Authors' conclusion
Our study indicated that multimorbidity burden was high among people with diabetes aged ≥65 years in China and was characterized by distinct network structures and clustering patterns. Arthritis and epilepsy showed high centrality in the comorbidity network, and network characteristics differed across age, sex and regional groups. These findings suggest that health management for older adults with diabetes should address not only common cardiometabolic conditions but also musculoskeletal, neurological and mental health problems.
Study context
- Population
- Older adults aged ≥65 years with diabetes from the 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, Chinaparticipants with diabetes included · male participants 593 · female participants 815
- Participants
- 1,408 adults
- Outcome
- Additional chronic conditions
Methodological detailsnetwork and hierarchical clustering analyses
- Network and hierarchical clustering analyses
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
≥1 additional chronic condition
91.6%
≥2 additional chronic conditions
71.3%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Most common conditions
- Hypertension
- 75.5%
- Heart disease
- 36.7%
- Affective disorder
- 33.7%
- Hypertension-heart disease combination (leading comorbidity pair)
- 31.75%
Network centrality
- Arthritis ranked highest for strength, closeness and betweenness in the overall network
- Epilepsy also ranked highly for strength and betweenness, particularly among participants aged ≥75 years and in the central and western regions
Comorbidity clusters
- Comorbidity clusters from hierarchical clustering
- Five
- Centrality profiles differing by age, sex and region
Original publication
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