Disease networks identify specific conditions and pleiotropy influencing multimorbidity in the general population.

ABSTRACT: Multimorbidity is an emerging topic in public health policy because of its increasing prevalence and socio-economic impact. However, the age- and gender-dependent trends of disease associations at fine resolution, and the underlying genetic factors, remain incompletely understood. Here, by analyzing disease networks from electronic medical records of primary health care, we identify key conditions and shared genetic factors influencing multimorbidity. Three types of diseases are outlined: "central", which include chronic and non-chronic conditions, have higher cumulative risks of disease associations; "community roots" have lower cumulative risks, but inform on continuing clustered disease associations with age; and "seeds of bursts", which most are chronic, reveal outbreaks of disease ass

SUBMITTER: Amell A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6206057 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature