How does chronic multimorbidity affect daily routines? An experience sampling study of community-dwelling adults in Hong Kong

Limited by conventional data collection methods, it is unclear how community-dwelling multimorbid people's daily routines are affected by their co-occurring illnesses. This study investigated the differences in everyday life schedules between multimorbid and nonmultimorbid people. Three hundred community-dwelling adults, representative of the Hong Kong Chinese population, provided real-time self-reports of daily routines over a 7-day study period. Stratified by baseline multimorbidity status, we implemented generalized linear mixed models (binomial) for each of the four outcomes: meal, chores, conversation, and work/school, with time intervals as independent variable and potential confounders adjusted. The odds of engaging in these activities were compared between multimorbid and nonmultimorbid participants by time intervals. Significant differences were identified. Unlike nonmultimorbid participants, late evening (22:00-24:00) was estimated to be the most frequently observed meal time among multimorbid participants (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 8.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.59-26.01 vs. 14:00-16:00), who also did chores significantly earlier in the morning (AOR = 1.97, 95% CI = 1.09-3.58 in 8:00-10:00 vs. 14:00-16:00). Conversations were significantly less likely among multimorbid participants throughout the day. Last, multimorbid participants seemed to have less typical working/schooling hours. Further studies are warranted to investigate how these disruptions may lead to lower levels of quality of life and poorer mental health.