America’s Health Rankings 2023 Senior Report by the United Health Foundation summarizes the strengths and challenges in the health of older adults (aged 65+) in the United States. This report encompasses 11 years of health data and highlights trends at national and state levels. A significant finding showed that despite years of improvement in the early death rate among adults aged 65-74 (a 4% decrease between 2011 and 2019), the early death rate increased for a second year, from 2,072 to 2,151 deaths per 100,000 between 2020 and 2021.
National highlights:
- The drug death rate among older adults increased significantly by 43% between 2016-2018 and 2019-2021, and 136% since 2008-2010 (pg. 9).
- Older adults with a household income less than $25,000 were 3 times more likely to experience frequent physical distress compared to those with an income of $75,000 or more (27.2% vs 9.0%) (pg.12)
- Older adults with less than a high school education were 2.7 times more likely to be physically inactive compared to college graduates (47.8% vs 17.7%) (pg. 22)
Hawaiʻi highlights (pg. 2):
- Hawaiʻi ranks number 7 out of all states.
- Strengths include a low early death rate (1,552/100,000), a low prevalence of obesity (16.5%), and a low prevalence of physical inactivity (25.4%).
- Challenges include a low volunteerism rate (18.4%), a low home healthcare worker rate (23.4%), and a high prevalence of severe housing problems (37.0%).
View the 2023 Senior Report and the 2023 Senior Report: State Summaries.
