Patients with Multiple Illnesses
Abdulaziz Gari *
Department of Internal Medicine, East Jeddah Hospital, Saudi Arabia.
Rayan Alghamdi
College of Medicine, Baha University, Saudi Arabia.
Yasir Aloufi
College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Saleem Alghamdi
College of Medicine, Baha University, Saudi Arabia.
Baraa Abukhudhayr
College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Turki Alzahrani
College of Medicine, Baha University, Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed Alzahrani
College of Medicine, Baha University, Saudi Arabia.
Mohannad Alghamdi
College of Medicine, Baha University, Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed Bakshwean
College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Abdulrazaq Alzahrani
College of Medicine, University of Malta, Malta.
Hassan Qadi
College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed Alghamdi
College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Moayad Alhothali
College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Approximately one-third of all individuals have multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) worldwide. Certain disorders tend to cluster together often, with correlations, such as depression and stroke, Alzheimer’s illness and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis coupled and diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The prevalence of MCC is highly variable according to the definition used and the number of conditions included in the study. In the United States, it was reported to be 23.1%. While other studies report MCC as high as 80% among elder population. The patient hardship encompasses a decline in standards of living, costly expenditures, adherence to multiple medications, incapacity to work, symptoms management, and a significant financial load on caregivers. This significant load from MCCs is expected to rise further. At the current time, the presence of more than one disease causes the patients to take multiple drugs, further prescribing may be indicated for the side effects of the used drugs. Furthermore, new conditions can be misdiagnosed and mistaken as side effects of the drugs the patients is taking. Strategies for treatments include establishing agreement on MCC taxonomy, putting more emphasis on MCC research, focusing on primary prevention to reduce morbidity, and shifting healthcare institutions and policies to a multiple-condition paradigm.
Keywords: Chronic, multiple illnesses, patients, polypharmacy