Bianca Beghé, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Section of Respiratory Diseases, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
Enrico Clini, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Section of Respiratory Diseases, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
Leonardo M. Fabbri, Section of Cardiorespiratory and Internal Medicine, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
Two-thirds of people aged ≥65 years have multi-morbidity. Multi-morbidity includes both physical and mental health conditions, as anxiety and depression, that almost invariably affect patients with multiple symptomatic chronic diseases.
Management of a patient with any of the chronic diseases that are part of multi-morbidity is not just the management of that single index disease, but must include the active search and proper treatment of concomitant chronic diseases. The presence of concomitant chronic diseases should not alter the management of the index disease (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]), and concomitant chronic diseases should be treated according to single diseases guidelines regardless of the presence of the index disease, obviously with careful consideration that this choice implies complex management, polypharmacy and potential adverse effects. Preliminary management programs suggest that a holistic integrated approach might improve quality of life and reduce hospital admissions and death in these multimorbid patients.
Keywords: Chronic bronchitis. Cigarette smoking. Emphysema. Frailty. Inactivity.
