The impact of co-morbidity on the disease burden of VTE

venous thromboembolism (vte) is often accompanied by co-morbidities, which complicate and confound data interpretation concerning vte-related mortality, costs and quality of life. we aimed to assess the contribution of co-morbidities to the burden of vte. the prefer in vte registry, across seven european countries, documented and followed acute vte patients over 12 months. patients with co-morbidities were grouped in major co-morbidity groups: cancer, cardiovascular (cv) comorbidity (other than vte), cv risks, venous, renal, liver, respiratory, bone and joint diseases, and lower extremity paralysis. mortality rates and health-related quality of life (hrqol) utility values grouped per co-morbidity were compared to the uk general population. regression analyses were performed to determine the impact of co-morbidities on mortality and hrqol. vte were analyzed together and separately as pulmonary embolism (pe) and deep vein thrombosis (dvt). in total, 3455 patients were included, 40.5% with pe and 59.5% with dvt. 13% and 16% of the pe and dvt patients had no co-morbidities and had a 12-month mortality rate of 1.8% and 1.7%, respectively. frequency and severity of co-morbidities increased mortality rates up to 30%. the eq-5d-5l index in patients without co-morbidities were 0.826 and 0.838 for pe and dvt. these scores decreased to 0.638 and 0.555 in the presence of co-morbidities. co-morbidities in vte patients are common. vte had an impact on mortality and hrqol, and additional impact of co-morbidities was seen. awareness of the presence of co-morbidities is important when making vte-related treatment decisions. the presence of co-morbidities in pe and dvt patients is common and their frequency and severity in vte patients have a substantial impact on mortality rates and hrqol. when adjusting for co-morbidities, the impact of vte on mortality as well as health-related quality of life remains present. assessing patients without consideration of co-morbidities might lead to misinterpretations of the disease burden of pe and dvt.