FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 19, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Women’s Choice Award, a national research firm representing the collective voice of women, recently conducted a healthcare survey among 1264 women ranging from 18 – 75+ years. The survey was designed to identify trending issues and gain insight on how women feel about their own health and their opinions on U.S. healthcare.
Overall, the survey found that women and their families are making lifestyle changes to maintain a healthier life. The vast majority of women are more health conscious and dissatisfied with the healthcare administration in our society. They are open to alternative forms of treatment for health conditions even if it has not been approved by the FDA. And despite the rapid increase in mobile communication, women lack confidence when using telemedicine for a diagnosis.
Survey highlights include:
- 89% of all women consider themselves more health conscious than 5 years ago
- 78% of all women believe that healthcare has progressed in the last 5 years
- 60% of all women would consider using an alternative form of healing to treat their medical condition if it was not FDA approved.
- 60% of women claimed that they have increased stress levels compared to last year.
- 41% of all women believe that we have better healthcare under our present administration
- 6% of all women feel extremely confident using telemedicine for medical diagnosis.
When looking more closely at the individual age groups, increasing trends were observed for three categories.
- Women 25 and older, who were more committed to annual examinations, felt that their healthcare provider was more actively involved in supporting their well-being and were also very satisfied with the amount of patient education received from their healthcare provider.
- Asked to rate a health category that concerns them the most, women 75 and under all said that cancer was their leading concern. Women 75 and above indicated that heart care was their utmost concern. Choices included infectious disease, heart, breast care, gynecology, osteoporosis, cancer and depression. When asked what type of changes were made to keep themselves and their family healthy, all age groups except 35-44 and 45-54 said that they ate more fruits and vegetables. Respondents in age groups 35-44 and 45-54 reported adding more water to their diet to stay healthy. For all age groups except 18-24, the factors that prevent women from a healthier lifestyle were: lack of willpower, time to exercise and costs associated with eating healthier. The main obstacles for women ages 18-24 were the costs associated with eating healthier as well as finding the time to exercise.
Women were asked to select the top three factors that were most challenging to their health. All six age groups with the exception of the 75+ group reported that stress was the #1 factor challenging their health, with insurance costs and hereditary / family history following behind. Women between the ages of 65-74 indicated that stress and hereditary factors were the top obstacles with fatigue and insurances costs coming in second and third, respectively. For women 75 and above, fatigue was ranked as the most challenging factor and insurance costs and stress were second and third.
Future surveys from Women’s Choice Award will continue to tap into trending healthcare issues and will incorporate regional segments to identify trends from women across targeted U.S. regions.
ABOUT THE WOMEN’S CHOICE AWARD®
The Women’s Choice Award® is a trusted referral source, empowering women to make smart healthcare choices by identifying the country’s best healthcare institutions based on robust criteria that consider female patient satisfaction and clinical excellence. The Women’s Choice Award was recently honored by the INC 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies in 2017 for a third consecutive year. Visit http://www.womenschoiceaward.com/ to learn more.
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