Multimorbidity in Bangladesh: Burden and Correlates in the Bangladesh Longitudinal Investigation of Emerging Vascular and nonvascular Events (BELIEVE) Study
type: CreativeWork
description: Background: Multimorbidity, a major global health concern nowadays, is increasing at an alarming rate worldwide, including in South Asian countries. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) explain the majority of current global mortality and with an increasingly ageing population, NCD multimorbidity can overwhelm health systems worldwide. Although there is some evidence of several determinants and risks of multimorbidity from western populations, these cannot be generalised to apply to South Asian populations where the sociodemographics and lifestyles are quite different. Objectives: The main aims of this thesis are to 1) summarise the existing epidemiological evidence of multimorbidity in South Asia; 2) investigate the burden of multimorbidity and the cross-sectional association between multimorbidity and socioeconomic status; 3) identify the association between multimorbidity and adiposity measures; and 4) describe the association between multimorbidity and mental health. Methods: BELIEVE is a large-scale multicentre population-based prospective study from Bangladesh with a sample size of ~73,500, over three distinct sites covering urban, rural, and urban slum environments. BELIEVE has collected extensive baseline information on all participants' sociodemographic, economic, lifestyle and physical measures along with various health conditions. Therefore, it serves as a unique scientific resource to provide an indication of the burden and correlates of multimorbidity across a varied range of individuals in Bangladesh. Results: A systematic review demonstrated that there was a scarcity of published data on multimorbidity from South Asian countries. The retrieved literature indicated a wide range of prevalence estimates reflecting different study samples, methods, and definitions of multimorbidity. The most widely used was the World Health Organization’s definition, namely “two or more diseases in an individual, definition was adopted for the BELIEVE study with the focus on …
abstract: Background: Multimorbidity, a major global health concern nowadays, is increasing at an alarming rate worldwide, including in South Asian countries. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) explain the majority of current global mortality and with an increasingly ageing population, NCD multimorbidity can overwhelm health systems worldwide. Although there is some evidence of several determinants and risks of multimorbidity from western populations, these cannot be generalised to apply to South Asian populations where the sociodemographics and lifestyles are quite different. Objectives: The main aims of this thesis are to 1) summarise the existing epidemiological evidence of multimorbidity in South Asia; 2) investigate the burden of multimorbidity and the cross-sectional association between multimorbidity and socioeconomic status; 3) identify the association between multimorbidity and adiposity measures; and 4) describe the association between multimorbidity and mental health. Methods: BELIEVE is a large-scale multicentre population-based prospective study from Bangladesh with a sample size of ~73,500, over three distinct sites covering urban, rural, and urban slum environments. BELIEVE has collected extensive baseline information on all participants' sociodemographic, economic, lifestyle and physical measures along with various health conditions. Therefore, it serves as a unique scientific resource to provide an indication of the burden and correlates of multimorbidity across a varied range of individuals in Bangladesh. Results: A systematic review demonstrated that there was a scarcity of published data on multimorbidity from South Asian countries. The retrieved literature indicated a wide range of prevalence estimates reflecting different study samples, methods, and definitions of multimorbidity. The most widely used was the World Health Organization’s definition, namely “two or more diseases in an individual, definition was adopted for the BELIEVE study with the focus on …
author: Khan, Nusrat
language: eng
keywords: Bangladesh, Epidemiology, Multimorbidity, Non communicable diseases
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/af3f9bdc-ea8c-420a-876e-e6438461abf8/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2023-04-01
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:20Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.96805