GLOBAL PREVALENCE OF NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES MORBIDITY AND COMORBIDITY AMONG ELDERLY INDIVIDUALS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES

A systematic review was carried out to assess prevalence of noncommunicable disease morbidity and comorbidity in relationship to socioeconomic, behavioural health and environmental risk factors for among elderly people globally. Observational studies were culled from public databases, such as PubMed, SCOPUS, Science Direct, and Google Scholar from January 2015 to December 2020, and a Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale tool and PRISMA 2009 checklist were used to assess risk of bias in selected material. Analysis was performed using a weighted mean of morbidity prevalence and disease subgroup together with an R program for data analysis. Among 16 eligible studies and 14 cross-sectional studies weighted mean of morbidity and comorbidity prevalence was 75.1 and 60.6% respectively. NCDs constituted mainly coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and stroke, with hypertension having the highest prevalence among all subjects (62.2%), both females (65.9%) and males (65.4%). In the elderly population individual and behavioural risk factors were the main categories related to morbidity, with behavioral risk factors contributing to comorbidities. In conclusion, morbidity and comorbidity prevalence are high among the elderly population worldwide. Diabetes mellitus and hypertension are the most common illnesses. Age, socioeconomic status, environmental settings and behavioral risk factors influenced comorbidity occurrence.