Cardiometabolic Multimorbidity and Activity Limitation Among Older Canadians

Research Objectives: To i) estimate the prevalence of activity limitation among Canadians with cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CM); and ii) to quantify the association between CM and activity limitation. Cardiometabolic multimorbidity is the diagnosis of two or more of stroke, heart disease and diabetes.

Design: Cross-sectional population study (n=13,118,474) using the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) data.

Setting: Canada

Participants: The CLSA includes Canadians aged 45–85 years, and excludes persons living on federal First Nations reserves, full-time members of the Canadian Armed Forces, individuals living in institutions, and people who were not able to respond in English or French. In our analyses, we further excluded individuals with missing or incomplete data.

Interventions: None

Main Outcome Measures: CM was operationally defined as the diagnosis of two or more of diabetes/prediabetes, myocardial infarction, and stroke (1). Activity limitation as defined in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, is “difficulties an individual
may have in executing activities.” (2) Activity limitation was evaluated using the Older Americans Resources and Services scale (3).

Results: The estimated prevalence of activity limitation among participants living with CM was 27.4% compared with 7.5% with no cardiometabolic conditions. Activity limitation increased in prevalence and severity with increasing numbers of cardiometabolic conditions. People with CM had increased odds of activity limitation compared with those without any cardiometabolic conditions (adjusted relative risk ratio = 3.99, 95% confidence interval [3.35–4.75]), and the odds increased with each additional condition. Stroke survivors had greater odds of activity limitation than those without a history of stroke and the same number of cardiometabolic conditions.

Conclusions: Activity limitation is common among Canadians living with CM. Odds of activity limitation increase with each additional cardiometabolic condition, especially for stroke survivors.

Author(s) Disclosures: None to report.