Which multimorbidity clusters are associated with longer hospital stays in hypertensive patients?

Introduction Hypertension (HT) is one of the world’s most important health problems. This study aimed to identify and characterize multimorbidity clusters in hypertensive patients and to assess which characteristics were responsible for length of hospital stay (LOHS). Material and methods Data were obtained from 489 patients admitted to the cardiology department with HT as the main diagnosis. The Partitioning Around Medoids method was used to divide patients into 12 clusters. Dissimilarity between patients was measured using the Gower distance. The number of clusters was determined using the silhouette method. Results It was noted that myocardial infarction (MI) patients were significantly older than patients without comorbidities and patients from clusters 2, 3, 7, 8, and 10. In addition, patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) only and patients with DM, heart failure (HF), and obesity were significantly older than patients who were only obese. LOHS was significantly longer in patients with HF than in patients from clusters 1, 2, 5, 7, and 10; patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) but without HF than in clusters 1, 5, and 7; patients with HF and obesity than in clusters 1 and 7; and patients with obesity and DM as well as patients with DM, HF, and often obesity than in patients without comorbidities. Conclusions The presence of additional health conditions impacts the duration of hospital stays for individuals with HT. The conditions HF, CKD, DM and obesity can lead to extended hospitalization. Patients’ clinical profiles provided sufficient insights to predict the necessity for prolonged and more costly medical care.