title: [Characteristics of patients with multiple disease hospitalized in Internal Medicine services].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Know what proportion of patients hospitalized in the Internal Medicine services have multiple diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed 400 clinical histories of a random sample of patients admitted to 24 Internal Medicine services of Andalusia. We assessed the diagnostic categories present that make it possible to classify patients as having multiple diseases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred sixty eight patients (42%) were considered as having multiple diseases. The most prevalent diseases in these patients are cardiological and diabetes mellitus. The two main variables that determine that one is a multiple disease patient are age and disease causing the admission.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A significant percentage of the patients admitted to the Medicine services of the Andalusia public hospitals have multiple diseases.
authors.affiliation: Area de Medicina, Hospital Alto Guadalquivir, Andújar, Jaén. jzambrana@ephag.es
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Zambrana García
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Velasco Malagón
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Díez García
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cruz Caparrós
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Martín Escalante
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Adarraga Cansino
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015897:Comorbidity / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology