The majority of patients who require treatment in an acute hospital setting are older people and many have multiple chronic conditions. Known as “multimorbidity”, many studies have shown it to predict an increased rate of mortality. However, few community-based studies have considered the predictors of future hospital admissions with multimorbidity.  This study explores the relationship between this condition and potentially modifiable lifestyle factors such as smoking, obesity, physical inactivity and low plant food intake.

The study found that in people initially free of disease:

  – age and male sex predicted subsequent incident hospital admissions with multimorbidity

  – smoking, body mass index > 30, physical inactivity and a diet low in fruit and vegetables were all independently associated with the condition

Modest differences in lifestyle may have the potential to mitigate the future burden of multimorbidity in the population.

• Full paper: Robert Luben, Shabina Hayat, Nicholas Wareham, Paul P Pharoah, Kay-Tee Khaw. Sociodemographic and lifestyle predictors of incident hospital admissions with multimorbidity in a general population, 1999–2019: the EPIC-Norfolk cohort BMJ Open2020 Sep 22;10(9):e042115. doi: 10.1136