[Characteristics of patients with multiple disease hospitalized in Internal Medicine services].
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.
Zambrana García
J L
JL
Area de Medicina, Hospital Alto Guadalquivir, Andújar, Jaén. jzambrana@ephag.es
Velasco Malagón
M J
MJ
Díez García
F
F
Cruz Caparrós
G
G
Martín Escalante
M D
MD
Adarraga Cansino
M D
MD
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