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The number of medication reimbursements was also found to be independently associated with the level of independence. It is not clear if prescription serves only as a proxy for underlying disease in this comparison. Even after correction for all other associated factors, among which Biotin-HPDP comorbidity, it appears that a higher number of reimbursed medication is more prevalent in those people with a low ADL. This might also be explained by residual confounding by not included somatic disorders, as it is not likely that the association between the number of drugs and the level of independence is independent of underlying disorders.
In line with the literature we found several somatic disorders to be associated with low levels of independence. The only group of disorders that we found to be independently associated with sub-optimal KATZ-15 scores in both men and women were COPD and asthma. The most likely explanation for this is that people with severe COPD or asthma will probably need help in cleaning the house or walking as people suffering from these disorders may easily run out of breath, which may hinder people in performing these tasks.