Nearly half of Gen Z'ers visit a primary care doctor less than once a year

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.

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 [email protected].

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.   

SOURCE RGA

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