Adults ages 65 and over in the U.S. are sicker than those in ten other high-income countries, according to an international survey by The Commonwealth Fund.
The survey covered adults 65 and older in 11 countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.
According to the survey:
- 36 percent of older Americans report having three or more chronic conditions. One out of four Canadians has three or more conditions. New Zealand is the healthiest, with only 13 percent having three or more conditions.
- 25 percent of older Americans said they worry about having enough money to buy nutritious meals or pay for housing. That number is 3 percent in Norway and 4 percent in Sweden.
- 23 percent of older Americans said they had not visited a doctor when sick, skipped a recommended treatment, or skipped medication doses because of the expense—only 5 percent or fewer said that in France, Norway, Sweden, and the UK.
- 22 percent of older Americans report spending $2,000 or more for medical care in the past year. In Switzerland, that number is 31 percent—but in the other nine countries in the survey, that number was lower than 10 percent.
- 43 percent of older Americans reported being "high need," having multiple chronic conditions and trouble performing daily living activities such as cooking or shopping. Australia is second with 39 percent, and the other countries are around 25 percent, the survey reported.
The authors of the survey interviewed people age 65 and older in the 11 countries by phone (and also online in Switzerland) between March and June 2017, according to the survey report.
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