Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2017
Abstract
Objective: To characterize complex multimorbidity among cancer survivors and evaluate the association between cancer survivorship, time since cancer diagnosis, and self-reported fair/poor health, self-rated worse health in 2 years, and 2-year mortality. Methods: We used the 2010-2012 Health and Retirement Study. Cancer survivors were individuals who reported a (nonskin) cancer diagnosis 2 years or more before the interview. We defined complex multimorbidity as the co-occurrence of chronic conditions, functional limitations, and/or geriatric syndromes. In addition to descriptive analyses, we used logistic regression to evaluate the independent association between cancer survivor status and health outcomes. We also examined whether cancer survivorship differed by the number of years since diagnosis. Results: Among 15,808 older adults (age ≥50 years), 11.8% were cancer survivors. Compared with cancer-free individuals, a greater percentage of cancer survivors had complex multimorbidity: co-occurring chronic conditions, functional limitations, and geriatric syndromes. Cancer survivorship was significantly associated with self-reported fair/poor health, self-rated worse health in 2 years, and 2-year mortality. These effects declined with the number of years since diagnosis for fair/ poor health and mortality but not for self-rated worse health. Conclusion: Cancer survivor status is independently associated with more complex multimorbidity, and with worse health outcomes. These effects attenuate with time, except for patient perception of being in worse health.
Keywords
cancer survivorship, comorbidity, functional limitations, geriatric syndromes, health decline, health status, mortality, multimorbidity
Language
English
Publication Title
Family Medicine and Community Health
Grant
KL2TR000440
Rights
© 2017 Family Medicine and Community Health. This is an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Warner DF, Schiltz NK, Stange KC, Given CW, Owusu C, Berger NA, et al. Complex multimorbidity and health outcomes in older adult cancer survivors a. Family Medicine and Community Health. 2017;5:. https://doi.org/10.15212/FMCH.2017.0127
Manuscript Version
Final Publisher Version