Health Care Needs for Older Adults

Ross A Flett, Nikolaos Kazantzis, Nigel R Long, Michelle A millar, Carol MacDonald

The increasing longevity of people in the industrialised world has resulted in a call for a renewed vision of the roles and functions of people in the “Third Age”. This paper reports on the physical health, patterns of health service use and related policy implications in a population of older New Zealanders. The data is based on a survey of 252 adult volunteers, aged 65 and over, who were asked about their health and their utilisation of, and satisfaction with, various health services.

Among the results, a significant number tended to regard their health positively despite exhibiting a range of symptoms and conditions, indicating that their concept of “good” health may differ from that obtained from a biomedical assessment.
Women reported higher satisfaction with GP services, highlighting the “gender blindness” of some health research.

We list the common chronic conditions reported and functional limitations to performing activities of daily living. Health service utilisation results suggest that community-based older adults are not an “inordinate burden” on primary and secondary health services.

Overall, we argue that the most important function of this kind of research is that it provides a mechanism for older people to voice their concerns about health, health services and issues of quality.