Multimorbidity clusters and their association with secondary bacterial infections and disease severity among…

Cohort studyJournal of multimorbidity and comorbidity· Jan 2026

Multimorbidity clusters and their association with secondary bacterial infections and disease severity among hospitalised COVID-19 patients in Victoria, Australia: Insights from population-wide linked data.

Michael Muleme, Mark Hayes, Bridgette McNamara … Mohammad Akhtar Hussain

Infectious DiseaseCohort studyPrognosis

Cardiometabolic-multisystem multimorbidity linked to highest odds of secondary bacterial infection in COVID-19 inpatients

Multimorbidity clusters and their association with secondary bacterial infections and disease severity among hospitalised COVID-19 patients in Victoria, Australia: Insights from population-wide linked data.

Michael Muleme … Mohammad Akhtar Hussain

Journal of multimorbidity and comorbidity · Jan 2026

Background

Limited evidence exists on how multimorbidity combinations influence the risk of secondary bacterial infections.

Purpose

This study identified multimorbidity clusters among hospitalised COVID-19 patients in Victoria (2020-2023) and examined their association with secondary bacterial infections and admission outcomes, including ICU admission, hospital and ICU length of stay, and mortality.

Methods

We used population-wide linked hospital data and applied cluster analysis to ICD-10 coded chronic conditions to identify multimorbidity clusters.

n = 19 patients

Results

cardiometabolic multimorbidity carries the highest infection risk of the three clusters

OR by subgroup · 95% CI

More results

Among 179,688 COVID-19 hospital admissions, three multimorbidity clusters were identified: neuropsychiatric, cardiometabolic-multisystem, and neoplastic.

More results

For patients with secondary bacterial infection, cardiometabolic-multisystem multimorbidity had the highest increase in hospital length of stay (Incident Rate Ratio (Incident Rate Ratio) 1.94, 95% CI 1.82-2.05) and ICU length of stay (Incident Rate Ratio 2.75, 95% CI 2.36-3.20).

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Multimorbidity was associated with increased risk of secondary bacterial infection and poorer clinical outcomes in hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

Integrating multimorbidity profiles into clinical decision-making may enhance antimicrobial stewardship by identifying patients most likely to benefit from antibiotic therapy.

Multimorbidity clusters and their association with secondary bacterial infections and disease severity among hospitalised COVID-19 patients in Victoria, Australia: Insights from population-wide linked data.

Multimorbidity clusters and their association with secondary bacterial infections and disease severity among hospitalised COVID-19 patients in Victoria, Australia: Insights from population-wide linked data.

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