Report of the National Institute on Aging Task Force on Comorbidity

THE National Institute on Aging (NIA) Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology (GCG) Program convened an interdisciplinary Task Force on Comorbidity lo rosier the development of a research agenda on the multiple concurrent health problems that often occur in older persons. Thus, the NIA GCG Program convened a task force of leaders in research on aging from different disciplines and professions (e.g., geriatrics, gerontology, social science, nursing, medical specialties, and epidemiology) to explore conceptual and methodological complexities of comorbidity and its assessment. Comorbidity indicates the co-occurrence of preexisting age-related health conditions (e.g., disability, anemia, impairments, urinary incontinence) or diseases (e.g.. diabetes, heart disease, hypertension) in reference fo an index disease (e.g., cancer, Parkinson's disease, diabetes).