As people get older, many will suffer from multiple diseases at the same time.
In a recent paper published in The Lancet – Digital Health, British scientists have analyzed health data from more than 3.8 million patients to reveal why some diseases tend to appear simultaneously in some individuals.
From these health record data, the researchers systematically identified clustering patterns for 308 common mental and physical disorders.
Some of these patterns include the fact that heart failure usually occurs in conjunction with hypertension, atrial fibrillation, osteoarthritis, stable angina, myocardial infarction, and chronic kidney disease.
The strongest correlation between hypertension and kidney disease is seen in those aged 20 to 29 years.
However, in those aged 40 years and older, hypertension was most strongly associated with dyslipidemia, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
Breast cancer has been associated with secondary lymph node cancer, secondary brain cancer, and secondary bone cancer in people of different skin tones.
These findings provide data and resources that may help health improvement better and care planning for people with multiple diseases.
In addition, scientists have provided online tools that can help understand disease patterns better in different groups at different ages.
