Health Affairs Panel Discussion
On March 6, 2018, Dr. Laura Rosella delivered a presentation at a National Health Policy Conference (on behalf of Health Affairs) in Washington, D.C. alongside panelists Dr. Ana M. Progovac and Tracy M. Layne. All three discussed the importance of identifying disparities in public health, with Dr. Rosella focusing specifically on her recent study about the increase in the accumulation of chronic conditions at the time of death in Ontario from 1994 to 2013.
Dr. Rosella pictured on the far right of the panel. Photo courtesy of Health Affairs.
Chronic Conditions in Ontario
Dr. Rosella’s study, published earlier this month in the Advancing Health Equity section of Health Affairs examines how the fall in mortality rates for several diseases correlates with patients living longer with complex multimorbidities.
After examining the proportions of multimorbidity and other types of conditions at the time of death of 1.6 million decedents, and framing that through the lens of socioeconomic fluctuation of multimorbidity in Ontario over the last two decades, Dr. Rosella and her team discovered that from 1994 to 2013 the prevalence of multimorbidity at death increased from 79.6% to 95.3%.
This upward trend in the number of conditions per person at death was observed for all chronic conditions except chronic coronary syndrome, congestive heart failure, and stroke, which decreased by almost 2% each between 1994 and 2003. The exemption of these three conditions may indicate the efficacy of Ontario’s investment in cardiovascular disease management and prevention strategies.
What this research emphasizes most is the importance of integrated health care planning and delivery that can meet the health care needs of Ontarians with multiple and complex chronic conditions, as well as the need for chronic disease prevention and socioeconomic interventions that can address the inequities in the types of conditions Ontarians accumulate.