Prevalence and patterns of chronic non-communicable disease multimorbidity in an Indonesian adult population

Background: Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a global health challenge, with increasing prevalence of multimorbidity. Objective: This study was to examine the prevalence of chronic NCDs and their multimorbidity patterns in the Indonesian adult population. Methods: Data were extracted from the Indonesian Family Life Survey wave 5 (IFLS-5) and included 17,958 participants aged at least 35 years. Information on 14 chronic NCDs was self-reported to estimate the prevalence of chronic NCDs and multimorbidity. Descriptive statistics were employed to explore the patterns of chronic NCDs multimorbidity, and chi-square tests were used to examine the relationships of age and gender with chronic NCDs multimorbidity. Results: Of all participants, 4,537 (25.3%) participants had one chronic NCD, and 2,749 (15.3%) participants had chronic NCDs multimorbidity. The chronic NCD multimorbidity prevalence increased with advancing age, from 8.6% in individuals age 35-44 years to 25.0% age 65-74 years. Women had a significantly higher multimorbidity of chronic NCDs compared to men. Hypertension (19.1%) was the most prevalent NCDs and appeared in various multimorbidity patterns. The most prevalent of a two-disease combination was hypertension and arthritis, and the most prevalent of a three-disease combination was hypertension, arthritis, and stomach or digestive diseases. Conclusion: The prevalence of chronic NCDs and their multimorbidity is quite high in Indonesian adults, with a complex pattern of multimorbidity. Hypertension occurs in various patterns of multimorbidity. These findings add to the importance of health management and clinical guidelines that focus not only on one chronic NCD but also on various chronic NCD multimorbidity conditions in Indonesian adults. Keywords. Chronic diseases; NCDs; Multimorbidity; Adult, Indonesia