We came across a recent survey by U.S. News & World Report that interviewed seniors who moved into either independent living, assisted living or memory care in the last two years, trying to gather how seniors experience social connection within their communities and also how they gauged their loneliness and health trajectories leading up to their move.
To no one’s surprise, the percent of seniors who felt lonely a majority of the time dropped from 69% before the move to seniors housing to 42% afterwards, still a large share, unfortunately. A smaller percentage reported taking part in more activities, more physical activity or finding meaning or purpose in daily life more often after moving into seniors housing. And overall, 33% of respondents said their health condition improved since making the move. We wonder how that percentage broke down by acuity type, and we’d love to hear statistics from other operators on perhaps even better results than that.
But a more interesting, if not obvious, statistic was that 65% of seniors said that loneliness or isolation contributed to a decline in their health before moving into a senior living community. That sounds like a pretty good incentive to maintain active social lives and/or move into seniors housing earlier than expected.
Unfortunately, that will not work for many financially, opening the door for active adult to make the case that it can solve for “most” of your wellness needs at a fraction of the price, excluding seniors with an immediate need for care. And active adult providers will keep experimenting with how to best build “community,” which could only improve outcomes and lengths of stay. As ASHA says, where you live matters, and a “longer, more active and healthier life” sounds appealing, especially if it is more affordable. Pair that with the financial incentive for millions of seniors to downsize or if they want to move to where their adult children live, and active adult could capture a large segment of that population and potentially see a much higher penetration rate than traditional seniors housing.
