Multimorbidity and associated outcomes among older adult inpatients with neurological disorders

Abstract

Background: Multimorbidity is common among adults and associated with socioeconomic deprivation, polypharmacy, poor quality of life, functional impairment, and mortality. Objectives: To identify the frequency of multimorbidity among older adults inpatients with neurological disorders (NDs), stratify clusters of chronic comorbidities associated with NDs in degrees, and verify whether multimorbidity was associated with demographic data, readmission, long length of hospital stay (LOS), and hospital mortality in this population. Methods: We enrolled patients aged ≥60 years successively admitted to a tertiary medical center with NDs between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2010. Results: Overall, 1,154 NDs and 2,679 comorbidities were identified among 798 inpatients aged ≥60 years (mean: 75.76±9.12). Women comprised 435 (54.51%) of patients. Multimorbidity was detected in 92.61% (739) of patients, with a mean of 3.88±1.67 (median: 4.0), ranging from 2 to 10 chronic diseases. Patients with epilepsy, dementia, and movement disorders had the highest degrees of clusters of chronic morbidities (>50% of them with ≥5 chronic disorders), followed by those with cerebrovascular and neuromuscular disorders. Multimorbidity was associated with long LOS (p<0.001) and readmission (p=0.039), but not with hospital mortality (p=0.999). Conclusions: Multimorbidity was preponderant among older adults inpatients with NDs, and NDs had a high degree of associated chronic comorbidities. Multimorbidity, but not isolated NDs, was associated with readmission and long LOS. These results support ward-based, neurohospitalist-directed, interdisciplinary care for older adults inpatients with NDs to face multimorbidity.

Characteristics and Outcome Determinants of Hospitalized Older Patients with Cognitive Dysfunction

“…Higher mortality, readmission risk, and LOS have been widely reported in hospitalized patients with DD [ 39 , 44 ]. However, this study found that readmission and LOS were similar in patients with and without cognitive disorders, which is supported by the findings of a previous study [ 45 ] that multimorbidity rather than CI predicted readmission and long LOS in patients with cognitive disorders. This result reinforced the hypothesis that the effects of multimorbidity on clinical outcomes result from the synergistic interplay of chronic disorders, lifestyle factors, aging, and consequent mental and physical impairment rather than the sum of their individual effects.…”