Seniors and the Health Care System: What Is the Impact of Multiple Chronic Conditions?

CIHI’s study Seniors and the Health Care System: What Is the Impact of Multiple Chronic Conditions? examines how seniors not living in institutions access health services and what kind of care they receive. According to the study, three out of four Canadians age 65 and older reported having at least one chronic condition, while one in four seniors reported having three or more.
Among the study’s key findings:

• The 24% of seniors who reported living with three or more chronic conditions were responsible for 40% of health care use among Canadian seniors.
• Seniors with three or more chronic conditions reported using three times as many health care services as Canadians age 65 and older with no chronic conditions. Those with three or more chronic conditions also reported more than twice the rate of visits to a family doctor as seniors with only one chronic condition.
• Similar patterns of health care use existed among adults age 45 to 64; those with three or more chronic conditions made six times as many health care visits as those with no reported conditions.
• Seniors with three or more chronic conditions made three times as many visits to emergency departments as seniors with no reported chronic conditions.

For a press release and link to the full report go to:
http://www.cihi.ca/CIHI-ext-portal/internet/en/Document/types+of+care/primary+health/RELEASE_27JAN11