# Multimorbidity

> **NIH NIH P01** · HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · 2021 · $103,353

## Abstract

Project 5: Multimorbidity—Abstract
 There is considerable interest in understanding patterns, determinants and consequences of multimorbidity
in aging populations, but relatively little research has been conducted outside of high-income settings. The
population of sub-Saharan Africa is aging rapidly, resulting in a rising burden of multiple chronic conditions,
with additional complexity derived from the high prevalence of HIV infection, especially in the era of increasing
survivorship through antiretroviral therapy. As the population ages, conditions affecting cognitive function,
notably Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, contribute further to a complex profile of multimorbidity.
Multimorbidity likely has significant implications for physical and cognitive functioning, mental health, mortality
risks, health service utilization and costs. The concept of frailty has been advanced as a way to characterize a
consistent aging phenotype that combines indicators of health and functional status that are highly predictive of
health decline and mortality, and the connection between multimorbidity and frailty is important to understand
in organizing health systems and planning for both formal and informal care of aging populations. This project
uses multimorbidity as an integrative lens through which to unify many of the major empirical observations in
the study cohort, and to amplify important themes relating to social and economic drivers of health outcomes in
aging populations that link all of the projects in the program. Our overall goal is to illuminate the role of
multimorbidity at the nexus of a complex web of determinants, outcomes and consequences. Toward this end
the project has four specific aims:
 AIM 1: Develop a comprehensive portrait of the epidemiology of multimorbidity in a cohort of older South
 Africans, including its prevalence and degree, its incidence and trajectory, and its patterns and
determinants.
 AIM 2: Evaluate the consequences of multimorbidity on mortality, physical and mental function, and well-
being.
 AIM 3: Assess the implications of multimorbidity for healthcare service utilization, effective coverage, and
 health care spending.
 AIM 4: Quantify the relationship between multimorbidity and frailty, and associated excess mortality risks,
 and develop integrative measures of healthy life expectancy.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10188359
- **Project number:** 5P01AG041710-08
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
- **Principal Investigator:** JOSHUA A SALOMON
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $103,353
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-09-15 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10188359

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10188359, Multimorbidity (5P01AG041710-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10188359. Licensed CC0.

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