Patterns and Trends of Multi-Morbidity at Death in France in the Last 20 Years

France Meslé , Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques (INED)
Aline DESESQUELLES, INED
Fanny Godet, INSERM
Elise Coudin, INSEE

Because increased life expectancy to a large extent, is due to better survival from chronic conditions, an ever-growing share of the population is living with several diseases – a situation referred to as multi-morbidity. Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that multi-morbid people are at higher risk of dying, and the COVID-19 pandemics is the most recent illustration of it. Research relying on the underlying cause of death fails to account for this important shift of the epidemiological profile and mortality patterns. Grippo et al. (2024) developed an algorithm based on the entire set of causes listed on the death certificates, to classify all death records according to three main types of morbid process leading to death (simple, multi-morbid and ill-defined). The output of this classification, allows to measure the contribution from multi-morbidity to the death processes in any given population. In this study, data are for France for years 2002 to 2023. We examine to what extent the increase in life expectancy over that period has been accompanied by an increase in the indicators of multi-morbidity at death. Special attention will be paid to the COVID-19 pandemic years.

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 Presented in Session 98. Causes of Death and Multi-Morbidity at Death