Table 2.
Study participant characteristics stratified by multimorbidity
| Variable | Multimorbid (n = 1173) |
Non-multimorbid (n = 1430) |
P value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Socio-demographic factors | |||
| Age (years) | 70.08 (7.7) | 68.62 (7.4) | < 0.001a |
| Gender (male) | 448 (38.2) | 647 (45.2) | < 0.001b |
| Marital status (married) | 840 (71.6) | 1158 (81.0) | < 0.001b |
| Education level | 0.044b | ||
| Primary school or lower | 587 (50.0) | 756 (52.9) | |
| Middle school | 249 (21.2) | 325 (22.7) | |
| High school or above | 337 (28.7) | 349 (24.4) | |
| Employment status (yes) | 38 (3.2) | 92 (6.4) | < 0.001b |
| Economic condition (good) | 627 (53.5) | 796 (55.7) | 0.029b |
| Medical insurance (yes) | 1158 (98.7) | 1415 (99.0) | 0.058b |
| Lifestyle and health-related factors | |||
| Smoking (yes) | 143 (12.2) | 208 (14.5) | 0.080b |
| Drinking (yes) | 171 (14.6) | 206 (14.4) | 0.901b |
| Exercise | 0.006b | ||
| Over 3 times/week | 716 (61.0) | 854 (59.7) | |
| 1–2 times/week | 302 (25.7) | 325 (22.7) | |
| Take no exercise | 155 (13.2) | 251 (17.6) | |
| Body mass index score | 24.19 (4.1) | 23.66 (3.6) | 0.001a |
| Sleep status (good) | 579 (49.4) | 894 (62.5) | < 0.001b |
| Hypertension (yes) | 808 (68.9) | 360 (25.3) | < 0.001b |
| Chronic pain (yes) | 574 (48.9) | 128 (9.0) | < 0.001b |
| Diabetes mellitus (yes) | 352 (30.0) | 88 (6.2) | < 0.001b |
| Hyperlipidemia (yes) | 330 (28.1) | 30 (2.1) | < 0.001b |
| Bone diseases (yes) | 289 (24.6) | 40 (2.8) | < 0.001b |
| Chronic gastrointestinal diseases (yes) | 261 (22.3) | 45 (3.1) | < 0.001b |
| Heart disease (yes) | 244 (20.8) | 26 (1.8) | < 0.001b |
| Gout (yes) | 167 (14.2) | 15 (1.0) | < 0.001b |
| Peripheral vascular disease (yes) | 138 (11.8) | 12 (0.8) | < 0.001b |
| Chronic kidney disease (yes) | 104 (8.9) | 10 (0.7) | < 0.001b |
| Spleen and gallbladder diseases (yes) | 94 (8.0) | 10 (0.7) | < 0.001b |
| Pulmonary disease (yes) | 89 (7.6) | 10 (0.7) | < 0.001b |
| Stroke (yes) | 71 (6.1) | 6 (0.4) | < 0.001b |
| Cancer (yes) | 23 (2.0) | 4 (0.3) | < 0.001b |
| Multiple sclerosis (yes) | 17 (1.4) | 2 (0.1) | < 0.001b |
| Dementia (yes) | 16 (1.4) | 1 (0.1) | < 0.001b |
| Mental disorder (yes) | 4 (0.3) | 2 (0.1) | 0.419b |
| Number of chronic diseases | 3.05 (1.4) | 0.55 (0.5) | < 0.001a |
| FIM domains scores | |||
| Self-care ability | 40.87 (4.7) | 41.36 (3.4) | < 0.001a |
| Sphincter control | 13.63 (1.6) | 13.79 (1.2) | < 0.001a |
| Transfer | 19.55 (3.3) | 20.03 (2.7) | < 0.001a |
| Walk | 12.62 (2.5) | 13.12 (2.1) | < 0.001a |
| Communication | 13.00 (2.3) | 13.29 (1.8) | < 0.001a |
| Social cognition | 18.58 (3.3) | 19.29 (2.7) | < 0.001a |
| Outcome | |||
| Annual hospitalization | < 0.001b | ||
| No | 986 (84.1) | 1344 (94.0) | |
| Yes | 187 (15.9) | 86 (6.0) | |
FIM Functional independence measure
Data presented are mean (SD) or n (%); Multimorbidity defined as the presence of two or more of chronic diseases in an individual
aBased on t-test
bBased on chi-square test