At least three chronic diseases affect more than half of the elderly in Italy, according to the Istat report on the health of the elderly.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, this specific fragility exposed the elderly population to a greater risk of death, hospitalization and admission to intensive care.
The most common serious chronic diseases among all the elderly are heart disease (19.3%) stable compared to 2015. On the other hand, chronic respiratory diseases (chronic bronchitis, COPD and emphysema) are reduced, especially among elderly men, including there was an increase in malignant tumors (+ 1.9%).
In 2019, about 7 million over-65s, more than one in two elderly, have multimorbidity, reporting at least three chronic diseases. Among the over 85s the share reaches two thirds, with a higher percentage among women, 69% against 60% among men. Even among the "young elderly" aged 65-74, the shares are confirmed high (48.5% among women and 39.6% among men). The most common pathologies (in a list of 22) are osteoarthritis ( 47.6%), hypertension (47%), lumbar (31.5%) and cervical (28.7%) pathology, hyperlipidemia (24.7%), heart disease (19.3%) and diabetes (16, 8%). They are the first diseases in the ranking for both genders. Bladder control problems follow for men (12%), and depression (15%), allergies (14.1%) and urinary incontinence problems (13.7%) for women.
Compared to 2015, there was a slight decrease in multimorbidity among the over 75s. If we compare the indicator, recalculated taking into account only the 21 pathologies detected in both editions of the survey, we can observe a reduction from 54.3% to 52.0%. 43.2% of the elderly aged 65 and over report at least one serious pathology (stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's and dementia, heart disease, including heart attack or angina, diabetes, parkinsonism, chronic respiratory diseases: chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - COPD, emphysema). The percentage drops to 17% if there are at least two serious chronic diseases.
Among the elderly aged 75-84, the share of those who have at least one severe chronic disease stands at 48.1% (52.4% among men and 44.8% among women) while the percentage of those affected from at least two serious chronic diseases is equal to 19.4% (22% among men and 17.4% among women). Among the elderly aged 85 and over, about one third say they have at least two serious chronic diseases (34.1% among men and 29.1% among women).
