Multimorbidity and its associated risk factors among the older adults in India

Abstract Health at older ages is a key public health challenge especially among the developing countries. Older adults are at greater risk of vulnerability due to their physical and functional health risks. With rapidly rising ageing population and increasing burden of non-communicable diseases elderly in India are at a greater risk for multi-morbidities. Therefore, to understand this multimorbidity transition and its determinants we used a sample of older Indian adults to examine multimorbidity and its associated risk factors among the Indian elderly aged 45 and above. Using the sample of 72250 older adults this study employed the multiple regression analysis to study the risk factors of multimorbidity. Multimorbidity was computed based on the assumption of elderly having one or more than one of the diseases risks. Our results confirm the emerging diseases burden among the older adults in India. One of the significant findings of the study was the contrasting prevalence of multimorbidity among the wealthiest groups, which diverges from some earlier studies in developing countries examining the multimorbidity. Thus, given the contrasting results and rise of multimorbidity among older adults India, there is paper argues for an immediate need for proper policy measures and health system strengthening to ensure the better health of older adults in India. Highlights Multimorbidity is emerging as key challenge especially in the developing countries. There is a significant association between multimorbidity and its associated demographic and socio-economic key risk factors. Contrasting prevalence of multimorbidity among the affluent groups as compared to earlier studies. Increasing longevity has significant consequences on morbidity pattern of older adult requiring an immediate policy attention to avert the challenges of morbidity, disability and death at older ages.