Multimorbidity and the risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality in the general population: A…

Cohort studyArchives of gerontology and geriatrics· Jul 2026

Multimorbidity and the risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality in the general population: A meta-analysis of population-based cohort studies.

Jun Shan, Xiaojie Xie, Rulan Yin … JiMei Zhang

GeriatricsCohort studyPrognosisQ1IF 4.7

Multimorbidity is linked to about double the rate of all-cause death

Multimorbidity and the risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality in the general population: A meta-analysis of population-based cohort studies.

Jun Shan … JiMei Zhang

Archives of gerontology and geriatrics · Jul 2026

Background

There are varying studies that report the role of multimorbidity in increasing cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality.

Purpose

To comprehensively assess the association between multimorbidity and all-cause and/or cause-specific mortality (cardiovascular and cancer) either in the general population or in patients with different patterns of multimorbidity.

Methods

We searched PubMed, and Embase and hand-searched to identify additional records.

n = 22717291 individuals

Results

multimorbidity roughly doubles all-cause death risk

HR 2.02 (95% CI 1.87 to 2.17)

null 1

1.87

2.17

CI excludes the null - significant

More results

A total of 69 cohort studies were identified, comprising 22717291 individuals.

Multimorbidity was related to mortality outcomes (all-causes, cardiovascular disease, cancer).

More results

The HRs for cardiovascular diseases (cardiovascular diseases) mortality were 2.773 (95% CI:2.358-3.261, I 2 :99.3%, n = 13) in the general population, 3.358 (95% CI:2.373-4.752, I 2 :99.6%, n = 7) in patients with cardiovascular multimorbidity.

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

This meta-analysis demonstrates that multimorbidity is a significant driver of all-cause, cardiovascular diseases specific, and cancer-specific mortality, with physical-mental and cardiovascular clusters conferring the highest risk.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

These findings underscore the urgent need to transition from single-disease management to integrated, patient-centered care models to mitigate these adverse outcomes.

Multimorbidity and the risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality in the general population: A meta-analysis of population-based cohort studies.

Multimorbidity and the risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality in the general population: A meta-analysis of population-based cohort studies.

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