Approved research

Risk factors in terms of lifestyle, diet, treatment, genetic susceptibility, plasma metabolites on the incidence and mortality of Cardiovascular disease and related non-cardiac multimorbidity.

Lay summary

The project will study the potential association of non-cardiac chronic conditions with cvd and heart function. Furthermore, we aim to identify the potentially effect of various risk factors in terms of lifestyle, diet, treatment, genetic susceptibility, plasma metabolites on the transition from healthy state to cvd and subsequently to related chronic multimorbidity.

Scientific rationale: Physiological burdens resulting from dysfunction in multiple organ systems among individuals with multimorbidity can synergistically amplify their vulnerability and heighten the risk of deteriorating health and mortality. With respect to mechanisms, accumulating conditions may induce or exacerbate other diseases through common pathophysiology (e.g. chronic inflammatory processes of CVD are found to increase the risks of developing diabetes or depression) Moreover, the relationships between CVD and other non-cardiac conditions are mostly thought to result from shared lifestyles, drug-diseases interactions and genetic susceptibility.

Project duration and public health impact: This project duration is estimated for 3 years.

public health impact: A population-based cohort study in the UK showed that the proportion of patients with five or more comorbidities including cardiovascular disease increased from 6.3% to 24.3%. In the United States, a high proportion of older adults have multiple chronic diseases. More than two-thirds of people aged 65 and over are multimorbid, and this proportion exceeds 80% among those aged 75 and over. In addition, 50% of adults aged 75 and over have four or more chronic diseases, and more than 20% have six or more coexisting illnesses. Therefore, it is important to elucidate the potential risk factors among cardiovascular diseases with multimorbidity patients , which can reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases by providing evidence for their treatment and risk factors, and thus improve the long-term survival rate of patients. This will also help to avoid overtreatment and alleviate the socio-economic burden of health care.