Patient Delay and Associated Factors in Older Adults with Multimorbidity

Background With the aggravation of population aging in China, the disease spectrum of the population has changed and the coexistence of multiple chronic diseases has become the norm for the health status of the older population in China. Patient delay refers to the behaviour of an individual who fails to seek medical care in a timely manner after becoming unwell for a variety of subjective or objective reasons, resulting in a decrease in the treatment effectiveness and a decrease in the quality of the patient's survival. At present, there are few researches on patient delay and the associated factors for elderly adults with multimorbidity in China. Objective To explore the patient delay and the associated factors for older adults with multimorbidity, so as to provide references to further reduce the incidence of patient delay. Methods Eligible elderly patients attending 27 community health centers in Guangdong Province from September to December 2022 were selected for the study using multi-stage stratified wh