Multimorbidity in a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes

Figures & data

Table 1. Baseline characteristics of study cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes.

Males, n (%)	227	(53.5)
Age, n (%):
< 50	42	(9.9)
50–59	108	(25.5)
60–69	125	(29.5)
70–79	116	(27.4)
80 +	33	(7.8)
GMS card, n (%)	170	(40.1)
Chronic conditions^a, n (%):
1	40	(9.4)
2	94	(22.2)
3	104	(24.5)
4 +	186	(43.9)
Medications, n (%):
0	14	(3.3)
1	6	(1.4)
2	13	(3.1)
3	43	(10.1)
4	45	(10.6)
5	69	(16.3)
6 +	234	(55.2)
GP visits in 12 months, median (IQR)	5	(2, 7.5)
Practice nurse visits in 12 months, median (IQR)	3	(2, 4)
HbA1c (%), mean (SD)	7.1	(1.3)
BMI (kg/m^2), mean (SD)	31.1	(5.9)
Cholesterol (mmol/l), mean (SD)	4.3	(1.1)

IQR, interquartile range; SD, standard deviation.

^aCount of chronic conditions is inclusive of type 2 diabetes.

Table 2. Number of patients and conditions by ICPC-2 chapter in a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes.

ICPC-2 chapter	Description reported	Prevalence^a	Conditions
		n (%)	n (%)
A	General	2 (0.5)	2 (0.2)
B	Blood/blood forming	17 (4.0)	19 (1.8)
D	Digestive	53 (12.5)	61 (5.7)
F	Eye	32 (7.5)	32 (3.0)
H	Ear	7 (1.7)	7 (0.7)
K	Circulatory	313 (73.8)	481 (45.2)
L	Musculoskeletal	79 (18.6)	87 (8.2)
N	Neurological	21 (5.0)	21 (2.0)
P	Psychological	49 (11.6)	51 (4.8)
R	Respiratory	71 (16.7)	73 (6.9)
S	Skin	12 (2.8)	12 (1.1)
T	Metabolic/endocrine/nutritional	152 (35.8)	178 (16.7)
U	Urinary	18 (4.2)	18 (1.7)
X	Female genital	8 (1.9)	8 (0.8)
Y	Male genital	14 (3.3)	14 (1.3)

^aIndividual patients reported multiple conditions, sometimes within the same chapter. Each chapter has only been recorded once per patient for the purposes of this table.

Table 3. Prevalence of most common chronic conditions in a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes.

Condition	Patients n (%)
Hypertension	281 (66.3)
Heart disease	107 (25.2)
Arthritis^a	69 (16.3)
High cholesterol	62 (14.6)
Hyperlipidaemia	39 (9.2)
Chest/lung disease	32 (7.5)
Asthma	26 (6.1)
Obesity	23 (5.4)
Hypothyroidism	18 (4.2)
Depression	17 (4.0)

^aArthritis includes arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout and spondylitis.

Figure 1. Network diagram of most common chronic condition pairs in a cohort with type 2 diabetes. Circles are proportional to the number of patients with that condition while the width of connecting nodes are proportional to the number of patients with that disease pairing. For example, 53 patients have arthritis and hypertension. Figures in brackets refer to the total number of patients with a particular condition (e.g. 12 patients had cataracts). Only pairings observed in 10 or more patients are shown. Arthritis includes arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout and spondylitis.

Table 4. Service utilization, polypharmacy and HbA1c by number of chronic conditions in a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes.

Number of chronic conditions	Annual GP visits	Annual practice nurse visits	Annual primary care visits^a	Concurrent medications	HbA1c (%)
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
1	4.18 (4.45)	2.45 (1.52)	6.30 (5.32)	3.40 (2.18)	7.35 (1.34)
2	5.30 (4.22)	3.09 (1.85)	7.85 (5.11)	5.00 (2.59)	7.12 (1.30)
3	6.17 (4.99)	3.15 (2.55)	8.96 (6.48)	5.81 (2.75)	7.19 (1.35)
4	5.99 (4.6)	3.51 (2.78)	9.04 (6.2)	7.28 (2.79)	7.03 (1.36)
5 +	6.05 (5.48)	3.40 (2.55)	9.00 (7.14)	8.04 (2.88)	7.11 (1.14)

SD, standard deviation.

^aPrimary care utilisation is the combination of GP and practice nurse visits.

Table 5. Regression coefficients (β) from a linear model predicting HbA1c percentage in a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes.

Variable	Regression coefficient	P-value
(Intercept)	6.474	< 0.0001
Age	–0.016	0.018
Sex (female)	–0.038	0.769
GMS card (yes)	0.113	0.405
BMI	0.003	0.812
Log (cholesterol level)	0.860	0.003
Number of GP visits	0.001	0.926
Number of practice nurse visits	–0.013	0.654
Number of medications	0.068	0.010
Number of chronic conditions	–0.071	0.119
Log (proportion of conditions self-reported)	–0.600	0.002