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Local
senior population getting pretty good care, survey finds By Gary Rotstein Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 23, 2003 The good news in perhaps the most extensive survey ever of Allegheny County's older adults is that they reported plenty of good health care. Among the findings in "The State of Aging and Health in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County" were that 88 percent of the local elderly population had health insurance that supplements Medicare; 95 percent reported no difficulty getting medical care; and 70 percent received flu shots in the prior year. Health researchers and practitioners said those and other findings from interviews with 5,094 individuals 65 and over in 2001 and 2002 suggested that local seniors both had relatively good access to health care and took advantage of it. "You can certainly say Allegheny County seems to be as good on most indicators as the rest of the country," said Donald Musa, senior research associate for the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research, which conducted the survey. The older population locally may benefit from the high number of union-covered manufacturing jobs they once held, with good pensions and health insurance benefits lasting into retirement; the high concentration of health-related institutions in the area promoting care and education; high enrollments in Medicare managed care plans covering preventive health; and increased government attention to elder needs in an older region. Musa said the 70 percent of individuals receiving flu shots and 71 percent of women obtaining mammograms in the prior two years were both somewhat higher than what national surveys have shown. Those surveyed were living only in the community, not in institutions. Different timing of the surveys and methods of questioning inhibits specific county vs. national comparisons on much of the data. The report noted that 77 percent of the U.S. older population had health insurance supplementing Medicare to fill gaps in coverage, compared to the county's 88 percent, but the national information was from 1998 instead of 2001-02. The survey showed 72 percent of local seniors had prescription medication insurance, 86 percent take prescription medications and 95 percent reported no difficulty getting those medications. Almost 90 percent of local seniors had a routine medical checkup in the prior year, 94 percent had a personal physician and 96 percent were satisfied with their medical care. Judith Black, medical director of senior products for Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, said such high percentages might be explained by the number of older adults with chronic conditions necessitating ongoing care. Fifty percent of the survey respondents reported high blood pressure, 18 percent had diabetes and 10 percent had had a stroke. Those percentages were higher than in a national survey from 1998, while the rate of local heart disease, 32 percent, was the same. "When you have conditions like that, you're going to be seeing physicians, because you need medications for those conditions," Black said. "And if we have more individuals seeing those physicians, recommendations are being made there for preventive care." Dr. Cynthia Napier Rosenberg, chief of geriatrics at The Western Pennsylvania Hospital, said the concentration of so many older adults in the region ultimately benefits them, getting the attention of both government and private health officials. "Physicians here are used to taking care of older people and thinking about it, and managed care in its best sense will remind people to do regular preventive health care things [such as flu shots and periodic screenings] on a regular basis," she said. Among other of the survey findings, which are available on the Web at www.ucsur.pitt.edu/publications.htm
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
