Multimorbidity of cardiovascular disease subtypes in a prospective cohort of 1.2 million UK women
Objective Cardiovascular multimorbidity (CVM) is the co-occurrence of multiple cardiovascular disease subtypes (CVDs) in one person. Because common patterns and incidence of CVM are not well-described, particularly in women, we conducted a descriptive study of CVM in the Million Women Study, a large population-based cohort of women. Methods UK women aged 50–64 years were followed up using hospital admissions and mortality records for an average of 19 years. CVM was defined as having ≥2 of 19 selected CVDs. The age-specific cumulative incidence of CVM between age 60 and 80 years was estimated. The numbers and proportions of individual, pairs and other combinations of CVDs that comprised incident CVM were calculated. For each individual CVD subtype, age-standardised proportions of the counts of other co-occurring CVDs were estimated. Results The age-specific likelihood of having CVM nearly doubled every 5 years between age 60 and 80 years. Among 1.2 million women without CVD at study bas