Only 20% of Americans Perceive Themselves To Be In Poor Health

Should we be surprised?  It always looks worse around us than what we think about ourselves.

BUT, this has huge implications.  If we’re trying to get people engaged in their care at a pre-disease point (i.e., pre-diabetic) or trying to engage them earlier in their chronic kidney care continuum, this matters.  They’re likely to ignore the outreach about wellness and disease management if they don’t think it applies to them.  I guess it’s like thinking that you’ll win the lottery.  Or thinking that the last dose of chemotherapy (even though you’re about to die) might just save you.

But, if you dig into the data, you do see some differences by age and by income (per Thomson Reuters 2010 PULSE Healthcare Survey):

• 35.5% of those making >$100K think of themselves in excellent health versus 11.1% of those making less than $25K.
• Only 1.1% of those making >$100K think of themselves in poor health versus 14.3% of those making <$25K.

(While we know that there are healthcare discrepencies tied to income, this wouldn’t explain this great of a gap in self-perception.)

• 61.7% of those <35 perceive themselves to be in very good or excellent health versus 40.7% of those >65 (but a lot of that could be explained away since they are much more likely to have symptomatic diseases at that age)

(comments in parenthesis are my perspective not from the study)