Centenarians Differ in Their Comorbidity Trends During The 6 Years Before Death Compared to Individuals Who Died in Their 80s or 90s

Centenarians Differ in Their Comorbidity Trends During The 6 Years Before Death Compared to Individuals Who Died in Their 80s or 90s

While compression of morbidity has now been studied in multiple cohorts, we hypothesize that centenarians might also have fewer chronic conditions as well. We assume that individuals who die as centenarians have less comorbidities and have a less steep rise of the number of comorbidities over the fi...

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Published in:The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences Vol. 73; no. 10; pp. 1357 - 1362
Main Authors: Gellert, Paul, von Berenberg, Petra, Oedekoven, Monika, Klemt, Maria, Zwillich, Christine, Hörter, Stefan, Kuhlmey, Adelheid, Dräger, Dagmar
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Oxford University Press 11-09-2018
Subjects:
Age Factors
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Centenarians
Chronic Disease
Cohort Studies
Comorbidity
Comorbidity - trends
Female
Geriatrics
Germany - epidemiology
Gerontology
Humans
Longevity
Male
Morbidity
Mortality
Oldest old people
Prevalence
Germany
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Summary:While compression of morbidity has now been studied in multiple cohorts, we hypothesize that centenarians might also have fewer chronic conditions as well. We assume that individuals who die as centenarians have less comorbidities and have a less steep rise of the number of comorbidities over the final years before death compared to those who died as nonagenarians (90-99 years) or octogenarians (80-89 years of age). This German cohort study used health insurance data. The data contain complete information on diagnoses and health care transactions for the 6 years prior to death. The sample (N = 1,398; 34,735-person calendar quarters) is comprised of three groups of individuals; those who died as centenarians were compared with random samples of individuals who died as nonagenarians or as octogenarians. Community-dwelling and institutionalized individuals were included. One quarter prior to death, individuals who died as centenarians had, on average, 3.3 comorbidities. Octogenarians had 4.6 comorbidities one quarter prior to death. Further, there was a significant time-to-death by age-at-death interaction (B = -.03, p < .001), where centenarians showed a less steep increase in the number of comorbidities than the comparison groups in their last 6 years prior to death. The lower prevalence of comorbidities in individuals who died as centenarians compared with those who died at a younger age reinforces the notion of centenarians as a selective group. Avoiding the confounding and potentially synergistic effects of having multiple chronic illnesses is likely vital to being able to survive to extreme ages.
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ISSN:1079-5006
1758-535X
DOI:10.1093/gerona/glx136