NEW YORK, Oct. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The R/GA
Future of Health Experience Report reveals that 40% of Gen Z
patients visit their primary care doctor either "once a year" or
"never as rarely," as well as around a third of millennials. This
presents an opportunity for the health industry to play a larger
role to close the gaps in accessibility, information and data for
younger audiences, who aren't seeking or receiving healthcare the
same way as their predecessors. According to the report, 42% of
respondents also said their current medical data was "easily
accessible" and just 30% said their historical records were "easily
accessible." Designing for the future of health means connecting
people with accessible information in ways they can actually use.
It means empowering them to address their specific health needs and
take proactive steps to a healthier life.
It's little secret that younger generations aren't seeking or
receiving healthcare the same way as their predecessors.
The key findings of the report are:
- Even those with insurance are struggling with access and
affordability: Over one third (35%) of insured respondents
citing a lack of money as one of the biggest barriers to living a
healthier life.
- People struggle to access the information they need to
pursue better health: 42% of respondents said their
current medical data was "easily accessible," while less than a
third (30%) said their historical records were "easily accessible."
Factors related to an information gap presented as much of a
barrier to greater health as those related to money.
- Neglecting the importance of mental health is leaving people
ill and keeping practitioners from understanding them: Just 4%
of Boomers reported seeing a therapist or psychiatrist in a typical
year and only 19% reported being diagnosed with anxiety or
depression, compared to 45% for Gen Z.
- When it comes to the impact of sex differences, we still
don't know what we don't know: 42% of women reported having or
having had either anxiety or depression, compared to 26% of men.
Overdiagnosis of women–whose symptoms may actually relate to
conditions doctors are failing to diagnose–and underdiagnosis of
men could be part of the reason why. According to Doing Harm
author Maya Dusenbery, 70% of those
with "medically unexplained symptoms" are women.
There's a lot more to unpack in the full Future of Health
Experiences report, both from our own proprietary research and from
the perspectives provided by subject matter and policy
experts–including former Department of Health and Human Services
officials.
"The COVID pandemic drove a significant pivot in the way we all
view healthcare and has already remade the American healthcare
system. Health equity is the first question and not the last.
Whether it's making sure we're collecting data so that we can make
better decisions or whether it's just making sure that we're
looking at the services through that lens, said Jacqueline Lovelock, Managing Director of R/GA
Health.
Lovelock added, "It's little secret that
younger generations—Millennials and Gen Z—aren't seeking or
receiving healthcare the same way as their predecessors. The next
wave of healthcare consumers' unique demands for convenient,
accessible and transparent care services are also leading them away
from "traditional" healthcare providers. They're more likely to
seek out a specific service they want (often online) and then go
with the provider that most quickly addresses that need."
Download the full report at
https://www.rga.com/futurevision/reports/rga-future-of-health-experiences.
To discuss health as an opportunity for your brand, or to have a
deeper look into the data from the study, please get in touch with
april.quinn@rga.com.
About R/GA
R/GA is an atypical innovation design and
communications company. We help brands and businesses define,
connect with, and create more human futures. Our work spans
innovation consulting, org design, brand design, experience design,
and marketing communications.
R/GA is part of The Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG),
one of the world's largest innovation and marketing services
organizations, and has more than 1600 employees globally, with 16
offices across the United States,
Europe, South America, and Asia-Pacific. For more information about R/GA,
please visit www.rga.com, or follow @rga on Twitter.
Research Methodology
R/GA conducted a proprietary
quantitative research survey fielded from May 2-12, 2021. This survey was hosted in the
Decipher market research platform, with a sample size of 2,446
participants sourced via Lucid Marketplace. The data was cleaned to
account for inconsistencies and illogical responses at two separate
stages of the process and weighted to represent the U.S. population
using age, gender, race, and region (across nine census regions).
You can find a table providing further data on audience composition
at the end of this report.
To expand on and contextualize this data, the report includes
reporting from interviews with subject matter experts and
disruptors in the digital healthcare space, as well as referencing
a number of external primary and secondary sources, reports and
studies, and incorporating insights into emerging health companies
from R/GA Ventures. We've attempted to provide a view of the
current U.S. health ecosystem, analyze where there are critical
gaps contributing to disparate health outcomes, and opportunities
to design better experiences of health to create a more human
future facilitated by a connected data ecosystem, technology, and
innovation, to arrive at personalized, value-based approaches to
care which contribute to better patient
outcomes.
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SOURCE RGA