# Aging in Community Health Clinics: Multimorbidity Patterns among Middle-Aged and Older Adults (ACHES)

> **NIH NIH R01** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $498,781

## Abstract

Project Summary
Multimorbidity among older adults is prevalent, disabling, and costly. Vulnerable adults may be at even greater
risk of multimorbidity earlier in the lifespan and may also experience sequelae and additional diagnoses that
increase multimorbidity burden over time. Greater understanding of how disease patterns change over time
and putative interactions with individual and community-level factors motivates the current proposed project
that centers on the health of vulnerable adults. This work will advance the field of multimorbidity and aging in
important ways by addressing key gaps in knowledge: (1) What kinds of multimorbidity patterns are most
common among patients seeking care in community health centers (CHCs) and how do these patterns change
over time? (2) Do community-level factors moderate the association between multimorbidity and poor health
outcomes for CHC patients? (3) Do middle-aged and older adults seeking care in CHC settings demonstrate
more rapid age-related declines (e.g., greater burden of multimorbidity, complex patterns of multimorbidity)
compared to their non-CHC health care seeking peers? And, (4) How do health care needs and utilization
change for middle-aged and older adults with multimorbidity? Our proposed research leverages clinical
electronic health record (EHR) data from large networks of CHCs and non-CHCs. We anticipate important
insights from findings that will inform clinical processes (workflow, clinical care decision-making) and policies
that serve safety-net populations by identifying multimorbidity patterns predictive of rapid health downturns. We
propose three aims to:
 Aim 1. Identify the prevalence, patterns, and health outcomes associated with specific multimorbidity
 combinations for middle-aged and older CHC patients over time and by sociodemographic factors.
 Aim 2. Identify community-level social determinants of health that moderate the relationship between
 multimorbidity combinations and disease progression, exacerbations, and mortality among middle-aged
 and older CHC patients.
 Aim 3. Specify multimorbidity prevalence and patterns over time among middle-aged and older adults
 seeking care in CHC relative to matched counterparts seeking care in non-CHC settings.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9991709
- **Project number:** 5R01AG061386-02
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Ana Roman Quinones
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $498,781
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9991709

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9991709, Aging in Community Health Clinics: Multimorbidity Patterns among Middle-Aged and Older Adults (ACHES) (5R01AG061386-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9991709. Licensed CC0.

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