Fifteen percent of older adults participating in a new survey ranked economic insecurity as the top driver of their stress or anxiety over the past 12 months, and 31% listed it among their top three stressors.
Alignment Health, a Medicare Advantage company, and Ipsos, a market research and polling company, conducted an online survey of more than 2,051 US residents aged 65 or more years in April and May to produce its 2024 Social Threat to Aging Well in America report, which was released last week.
“As an industry, we must pay close attention to what our nation’s seniors are telling us are the major roadblocks that impede their health so we can pinpoint solutions that help remove as many of those barriers as we can and ensure they thrive in their later years,” said John Kim, MD, senior vice president of market management at Alignment Health and chief medical officer of Alignment Health Plan in California.
Nationally, 56% of survey respondents said they consider economic insecurity to be a top threat to their health and well-being. Among states, North Carolina and Nevada had the highest percentage of participants who felt this way — 64% and 63%, respectively. Texas was close behind, with 62% of respondents feeling the same way.
For Nevada residents taking the survey, economic insecurity not only was viewed as a current threat but also was a future concern, with 48% citing it as a potential barrier compared with respondents nationwide (39%). Survey respondents living in Texas, at 47%, also were more likely than the national population of participants to say that they view economic insecurity as a future threat to their health and well-being.
More than a fourth (26%) of respondents said they have skipped medical care due to their financial situation, with 35% of them worried about having enough money to pay for care.
Survey-takers also reported issues related to being lonely or lacking support. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said that lack of support was a significant social or environmental factor weighing heavily on them in terms of their health and wellness, and 30% said the same of loneliness.
The full report is available on the Alignment Health website.
