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One third of Estonian people have two or more chronic diseases
According to a study recently published by University of Tartu researchers, the prevalence of chronic conditions and multimorbidity in Estonia is relatively high. The most frequent chronic condition is hypertension.
Multimorbidity was defined in the study as the coexistence of at least two chronic conditions. “Multimorbidity is associated with patients’ decreased quality of life, psychological distress, longer hospital stays, more postoperative complications, higher cost of treatment and higher mortality. Such patients need a complex approach and are therefore a great burden for the healthcare system,” said the lead author of the study Mikk Jürisson, Associate Professor of Public Health at the University of Tartu.
The study analysed the prevalence data of 55 chronic conditions in the years 2015–2017. It appeared that half of the Estonian population (49.1%) had at least one and nearly a third (30.1%) had two or more chronic conditions. “Women had a slightly higher prevalence of multimorbidity than men: about one in three women and one in four men had it,” said Jürisson.
The number of conditions and the percentage of people with multimorbidity increases with age. While in the youngest age group (up to 24 years), the prevalence of multimorbidity was 2.4%, in the oldest group (aged over 85) it was 80.4%. One in 12 Estonian people has five or more chronic diseases. Half of the population have multimorbidity by the age of 60 and 75% by the age of 75. The most frequent chronic condition is hypertension, suffered by every fourth individual in the population. It is followed by chronic pain (12.4%) and arthritis (7.7%).
According to one author of the study, Professor of Family Medicine Ruth Kalda, the study results allow to conclude that the burden of chronic conditions and multimorbidity in Estonia is high and increasing with age. “In eastern Europe countries, and also Estonia, there are more chronic conditions and multimorbidity compared to western Europe. An important finding is that hypertension is a common condition, which is linked to other heart conditions and other diseases; its prevention is feasible and highly important in the context of public health,” said Kalda.
The cross-sectional study of the prevalence of chronic conditions and multimorbidity was carried out based on the data of the Estonian Health Insurance Fund. One of the authors of the study, Associate Professor in Epidemiology Katrin Lang said that the database of the Estonian Health Insurance Fund is suitable for this study as its data are of good quality and cover 95% of the population. “Also, previous studies of this type in other countries of eastern and northern Europe are scarce. However, considering the ageing population and the overstretched health care system, this information is invaluable,” she said.
The article “Prevalence of chronic conditions and multimorbidity in Estonia: a population-based cross-sectional study” was published in the journal BMJ Open.
Further information: Katrin Lang, Associate Professor in Epidemiology, Institute of Family Medicine and Public Health, katrin.lang@ut.ee, 737 4194