# Changes in Multimorbidity and Disability Among Race/Ethnic Older Adults

> **NIH NIH R01** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $514,742

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Multiple co-occurring chronic diseases (multimorbidity) among older adults are highly prevalent, disabling, and
costly. Greater awareness of the complex interactions between diseases motivates the proposed project aims
to identify disease combinations that drive important health outcomes such as disability, health-related quality
of life, and mortality for vulnerable older adults. The proposed work will add to our understanding of
multimorbidity combinations and their role in the development of disability in important ways by: (1) providing
direct comparisons of prevalent multimorbidity groups for diverse elders, (2) quantifying the association
between multimorbidity combinations and disability onset, and (3) identifying the changing care needs and
health care expenditures of older adults with multimorbidity. The proposed work will provide important insights
on which disease combinations pose the greatest risks for disability onset, which in turn may lead to loss of
independence, institutionalization, and premature death. While our preliminary work finds that greater
multimorbidity burdens accrue to older African Americans, and examines which diseases comprise the most
frequently occurring multimorbidity combinations among older Americans, our proposed research enables the
study of long-term influences of multimorbidity in over 20 years of nationally-representative biennial data
(~37,000 people in the Health & Retirement Study), and 5 years of annual data (~8,000 people in the National
Health & Aging Trends Study). We propose three aims:
 Aim 1. Determine the longitudinal development and progression of multimorbidity among older adults.
 Aim 2. Determine the onset of and changes in disability for older adults with multimorbidity.
 Aim 3. Evaluate changes in health care and mortality for older adults with varying multimorbidity and
 disability profiles.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10162457
- **Project number:** 5R01AG055681-05
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Ana Roman Quinones
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $514,742
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-01 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10162457

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10162457, Changes in Multimorbidity and Disability Among Race/Ethnic Older Adults (5R01AG055681-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10162457. Licensed CC0.

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