Comorbidity in Older Patients Hospitalized with Cancer in Northeast China based on Hospital Discharge Data

Xiao-Min Mu, Wei Wang, Fang-Yi Wu, Yu-Ying Jiang, Ling-ling Ma and Jia Feng
Additional contact information
Xiao-Min Mu: Department of Medical Informatics, School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China
Wei Wang: Department of Medical Informatics, School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China
Fang-Yi Wu: Information Research Center of Military Sciences, Academy of Military Sciences, Beijing 100039, China
Yu-Ying Jiang: Department of Medical Informatics, School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China
Ling-ling Ma: Department of Medical Informatics, School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China
Jia Feng: Department of Medical Informatics, School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-12

Abstract: Patients with cancer often carry the dual burden of the cancer itself and other co-existing medical conditions. The problems associated with comorbidities among elderly cancer patients are more prominent compared with younger patients. This study aimed to identify common cancer-related comorbidities in elderly patients through routinely collected hospital discharge data and to use association rules to analyze the prevalence and patterns of these comorbidities in elderly cancer patients at different cancer sites. We collected the discharge data of 80,574 patients who were diagnosed with cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colorectum, liver, lung, female breast, cervix, and thyroid between 2016 and 2018. The same number of non-cancer patients were randomly selected as the control group and matched with the case group by age and gender. The results showed that cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, digestive diseases, and anemia were the most common comorbidities in elderly patients with cancer. The comorbidity patterns differed based on the cancer site. Elderly patients with liver cancer had the highest risk of comorbidities, followed by lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, thyroid cancer, and reproductive cancer. For example, elderly patients with liver cancer had the higher risk of the comorbid infectious and digestive diseases, whereas patients with lung cancer had the higher risk of the comorbid respiratory system diseases. The findings can assist clinicians in diagnosing comorbidities and contribute to the allocation of medical resources.

Keywords: cancer; comorbidity; association rule; prevalence ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/8028/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/8028/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:8028-:d:438243

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().