Original articlePhysical Activity and the Effect of Multimorbidity on All-Cause Mortality in Older Adults
Section snippets
Study Population and Design
We used data from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid cohort, with a total of 4008 individuals (1739 men), representative of the noninstitutionalized population 60 years and older in Spain. The study methods have been reported in detail elsewhere.9, 10 The baseline cohort was recruited in 2000/2001 using probabilistic sampling by multistage clusters. The clusters were stratified according to region of residence and size of municipality. Census sections were then chosen randomly within each
Results
The baseline characteristics of the study participants are presented in Supplemental Table 1 (available online at http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org). The proportion of participants with 0, 1, 2, and 3 or more chronic conditions was 43.2% (n=1715), 37.5% (n=1488), 14.4% (n=571), and 4.9% (n=193), respectively. Compared with participants having 0 chronic conditions, those who had 3 or more chronic conditions were older, had lower educational attainment, and were less frequently physically
Discussion
In this nationally representative cohort of older adults, a higher number of chronic diseases was progressively associated with increased mortality; however, being physically active was linked to a 30% to 47% lower risk of death at each level of morbidity. In fact, the effect of PA on mortality was particularly important in individuals with multimorbidity so that physically active individuals with 3 or more chronic diseases had lower mortality risk than those who were physically inactive and
Conclusion
Physical activity is associated with a reduction in increased risk of death associated with multimorbidity (ie, the coexistence of ≥2 chronic conditions) in older individuals. Future research to examine the role of PA in improving health outcomes in aging populations should focus on individuals with specific geriatric syndromes, such as frailty, disability, falls, or incontinence.
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Grant Support: This work was supported by the Ministry of Health (FIS grant 12/1166, State Secretary of R+D+I and FEDER/FSE), the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (R+D+I grant DEP2013-47786-R), the Ministry of Education (mobility grant JC2015-00080), the FRAILOMIC Initiative (European Union FP7-HEALTH-2012-Proposal No. 305483-2), and the ATHLOS project (European project H2020 [project ID: 635316]).