Caring for chronic illnesses
by Kelly Stone
A
recently published South Australian study will have significant
implications for the awareness and formulation of management and care
strategies for people with many chronic illnesses.
Dr Gillian Caughey from UniSA’s Sansom Institute for Health Research was the lead author of the study which showed combinations of certain chronic conditions in the elderly can significantly decrease life expectancy.
Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the study suggests primary health care which is more centred on the whole patient rather than on individual diseases, improves life expectancy.
Dr Caughey says increased knowledge of the most common combinations of chronic medical conditions and treatment outcomes in the elderly will help to support better management and care of those patients.
“Between 65 to 80 per cent of the elderly have multiple chronic conditions and that is projected to rise with the increasing age of our population,” Dr Caughey said.
“We found elderly people with three or four chronic diseases have a 25 per cent increased risk of mortality, while those with five or more chronic diseases have an 80 per cent increased risk of mortality, by comparison to those with no chronic diseases.
“Mortality is also dependent on the specific disease combinations present within an individual, with cardiovascular disease and mental health problems associated with increased mortality.”
Dr Caughey said the study also found that elderly people who have arthritis along with a number of other chronic health conditions have a higher life expectancy than those who don’t have arthritis combined with those other conditions.
“These results raise the hypothesis that patients who have increased likelihood of opportunity for care from their doctor are more likely to have other chronic medical conditions detected earlier and be better managed,” she said.
Dr Caughey worked on the 14-year study with UniSA colleagues Professor Andrew Gilbert, Dr Libby Roughead, Dr Agnes Vitry, along with Flinders University’s Dr Mary Luszcz and the University of Adelaide’s Professor Philip Ryan and Emmae Ramsay.