Table 1.

Prevalence of multimorbidity by gender according to sociodemographic and lifestyle factors

Variables	Levels	Total		Men		Women		Difference
		Overall	Multimorbidity	Overall	Multimorbidity	Overall	Multimorbidity	Men vs Women	p Value
		n=49946	(%)	n=21198	(%)	n=28748	(%)	(%)
Age (years)	40–49	23 074	13.9	9012	8.6	14 062	17.3	−8.7*	<0.001
	50–60	17 512	22.7	7321	14.2	10 191	28.8	−14.6*	<0.001
	61–75	9360	30.4	4865	20.9	4495	40.6	−19.7*	<0.001
Residential area	Rural	38 354	20.2	16 514	13.3	21 840	25.4	−12.2*	<0.001
	Urban	11 592	19.8	4684	13.8	6908	23.9	−10.0*	<0.001
Ethnicity	Turkmen	37 253	19.6	16 051	12.6	21 202	24.9	−12.3*	<0.001
	Other†	12 693	21.5	5147	15.8	7546	25.4	−9.5*	<0.001
Marital status	Unmarried	43 873	18.6	20 634	13.4	23 239	23.3	−10.0*	<0.001
	Married	6073	30.6	564	14.2	5509	32.3	−18.1*	<0.001
Education	Illiterate	35 060	23.4	10 406	15.6	24 654	26.7	−11.1*	<0.001
	≤5 years	8449	13.6	5545	11.7	2904	17.3	−5.5*	<0.001
	6–12 years	5376	10.9	4317	10.8	1059	11.1	−0.3	0.761
	University degree	1061	9.9	930	10.3	131	6.9	3.5	0.219
Employed	Yes	43 415	18.5	17 529	11.3	25 886	23.3	−12.0*	<0.001
	No	6530	30.7	3668	23.1	2862	40.5	−17.4*	<0.001
Soc ioeconomic status	Good	18 831	18.1	8703	12.7	10 128	22.7	−10.0*	<0.001
	Medium	24 001	20.5	9748	13.3	14 253	25.4	−12.1*	<0.001
	Poor	7105	24.1	2741	15.9	4364	29.2	−13.3*	<0.001
Physical activity	Yes	15 838	13.3	11 308	10.2	4530	20.8	−10.6*	<0.001
	No	33 947	23.2	9852	17.0	24 095	25.8	−8.8*	<0.001
Body mass index (BMI)	Underweight	2380	17.4	1245	14.1	1135	21.0	−6.9*	<0.001
	Normal	17 871	14.9	9596	11.3	8275	19.2	−7.9*	<0.001
	Overweight	16 993	20.4	7271	14.4	9722	24.9	−10.6*	<0.001
	Obese	12 694	27.4	3081	17.3	9613	30.7	−13.3*	<0.001
Smoking‡	Never	41 323	21.1	13 018	12.8	28 305	24.9	−12.1*	<0.001
	Ex-smoker	3189	21.2	3064	20.3	125	44.0	−23.7*	<0.001
	Light smoker (<20 cigarettes/day)	3272	11.1	3013	9.9	259	25.5	−15.6*	<0.001
	Heavy smoker (≥20 cigarettes/day)	2161	13.0	2103	12.1	58	44.8	−32.7*	<0.001
Other tobacco use	Yes (ever)	4427	19.7	3749	17.7	678	30.8	−13.1*	<0.001
	No (never)	45 519	20.1	17 449	12.5	28 070	24.9	−12.4*	<0.001
Opium	Yes (ever)	8489	19.6	6138	11.7	2351	24.0	−12.3*	<0.001
	No (never)	41 457	22.7	15060	17.4	26 397	36.2	−18.8*	<0.001
Alcohol	Yes (ever)	1721	20.2	1701	13.0	20	25.0	−12.1*	<0.001
	No (never)	48 225	18.2	19 497	18.2	28 728	25.0	−6.8	0.435

*p <0.001.

†Other: Persian, Turk, Sistani, Baluch and Kurdish.

‡Individuals were defined as smokers if they had used cigarettes at least once weekly for 6 months.