title: Use of the chronic disease score to measure comorbidity in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging.
abstract: Most older adults have multiple chronic diseases. Consideration of these conditions can improve the performance of statistical models in epidemiological analyses. The Chronic Disease Score (CDS) is a measure of comorbidity derived from medication usage, which may have some advantages over measures derived from other sources. The calculation of the CDS from data contained in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA) is described. This measure can be used to estimate comorbidity within the CSHA database.
authors.affiliation: Division of Geriatric Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: MacKnight
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rockwood
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical