Fifty-five per cent of Canadians rate their overall health as "excellent" or "very good" in 2011 - a decline from 2009 when 60 per cent said the same - and nearly two-thirds report high levels of emotional well-being, similar to two years ago. At the same time, Canadians are experiencing increased challenges as they try to adequately address wellness, healthy living and chronic disease. For example, over half of Canadians have been diagnosed with one or more chronic diseases. These are some of the findings of Deloitte's 2011 Survey of Health-care consumers in Canada: Key Findings, strategic Implications which surveyed over 2,300 adult Canadians to better understand the perspectives of Canadians as health-care consumers.
"While we note a decline compared to two years ago, the fact that a majority of Canadians continue to rate themselves as healthy is good news. Our survey shows we rank third in that self-assessment, just behind the U.S. (61 per cent) and the U.K. (56 per cent), and well ahead of the other nine countries we reviewed," says Mark Fam, Senior Manager, Deloitte National Health Services and lead author for the Canadian health consumer survey. "This is consistent with other findings in our study that indicate Canadians are generally satisfied with their health-care system, however we also see an increase in consumer demand for improvements to system performance and their access to health services that support their own wellness and care self-management."
But the new survey results also reveal major challenges, including increasing rates of chronic disease (52 per cent this year compared to 47 per cent in 2009), a development with significant implications in terms of health outcomes and income-generating capacity for many Canadians. "The number of Canadians giving high marks to their health climbs sharply (over 70 per cent) if we only look at those without chronic disease," Fam said. "In addition, one in seven Canadians now have responsibility for the care of family members or friends, an increase from 2009. Fam pointed out that this trend is growing and it represents major limitations on the caregivers' ability to earn income. "This is a challenge that continues to be a key element of the Canadian consumer health care experience," Fam said.
Now in its fourth year globally, and the second year for Canada, the 2011 survey continues to explore consumers' behaviours, attitudes, and unmet needs in six areas: wellness and healthy living; information resources; traditional health services; alternative health services; health insurance; health policy.
The new survey found that Canadians are experiencing a range of difficulties - from costs to information in order to fully navigate the system - in finding the resources they need to achieve effective self-care. As a result, survey respondents were in favour of innovations and solutions that help them manage their own care and that bring the health-care system as close as possible to the individual in order to meet evolving needs and expectations.
In commenting on these findings, Lisa Purdy, Partner, National Health Leader, Deloitte noted that the increasingly widespread use of preventive services - regular check-ups, screenings, supplements, nutritional foods - is a step in the right direction but that it needs to be enhanced with targeted encouragements such as tax-based incentives to promote healthy living. "Currently, women and older Canadians use preventive services the most, but younger Canadians indicate they would welcome new public tax models that reward healthy living," Purdy said.
She also emphasized the high interest shown by Canadians toward electronic tools that help manage their care and consolidate related information: Over 65 per cent of Canadians said they would favour having a government-provided electronic health record that could be used by themselves and their health providers; a similar number support medical devices that enable them to check their health condition and send information electronically to their doctor. "A strong majority of Canadians said they used the Internet in the past year for online banking, to purchase merchandise or reserve travel, so this is a trend our health-care system can adapt in order to meet the evolving needs of the population." Purdy also noted that consumers' concern over privacy and security of personal information is dropping: Fewer than a third of respondents say they are highly concerned about the security of their information stored online this year, compared to 34 per cent two years ago.
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