AUTHOR=Yu Zijing , Chen Yuquan , Xia Qianhang , Qu Qingru , Dai Tao 

TITLE=Identification of status quo and association rules for chronic comorbidity among Chinese middle-aged and older adults rural residents

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1186248

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1186248

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Background: Chronic comorbidity has become a major challenge in chronic disease prevention and control. This issue is particularly pronounced in rural areas of developing countries, where the prevalence of chronic disease comorbidity is high, especially among middle-aged and elderly populations. However, the health status of middle-aged and elderly individuals in rural areas of China has received inadequate attention. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the correlation among chronic diseases to establish a reference basis for adjusting health policies aimed at promoting the prevention and management of chronic diseases among middle-aged and elderly individuals.
Methods: This study selected 2,262 middle-aged and elderly residents aged 50 years or older in Shangang Village, Jiangsu Province, China, as the study population. To analyze the chronic comorbidity of middle-aged and elderly residents with different characteristics, we used the Chi-square test with SPSS statistical software. Data analysis was conducted using the Apriori algorithm of Python software, set to mine the strong association rules of positive correlation between chronic disease comorbidities of middle-aged and elderly residents.
Results: The prevalence of chronic comorbidity was 56.6%. The chronic disease comorbidity group with the highest prevalence rate was the lumbar osteopenia + hypertension group. There were significant differences in the prevalence of chronic disease comorbidity among middle-aged and elderly residents in terms of gender, BMI and chronic disease management. The Apriori algorithm was used to screen 15 association rules for the whole population, 11 for genders, and 15 for age groups. According to the order of support, the most common association rules of comorbidity of three chronic diseases were: {lumbar osteopenia} → {hypertension} (support: 29.22%, confidence: 58.44%), {dyslipidemia} → {hypertension} (support: 19.14%, confidence: 65.91%) and {fatty liver} → {hypertension} (support: 17.82%, confidence: 64.17%).
Conclusions: The prevalence of chronic comorbidity among middle-aged and elderly rural residents in China is relatively high. We identified many association rules among chronic diseases, dyslipidemia is mostly the antecedent and hypertension is primarily the result. In particular, the majority of comorbidity aggregation patterns consisted of hypertension and dyslipidemia. By implementing scientifically-proven prevention and control strategies, the development of healthy aging can be promoted.