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Friday, January 03, 2025  05:00 PM  (64)

UCSUR's Quality of Life Survey - Results on Health, Brief

The University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR), with UrbanKind, conducted an Allegheny County Quality of Life survey in Fall 2023. The 100-plus question survey was funded by the Pittsburgh Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, and UCSUR. The survey asks a large diverse community sample for their personal perceptions of quality of life and livability, how they are changing, and changes with the COVID19 pandemic. The project builds on previous QOL surveys conducted by UCSUR that showed significant differences by race in quality of life across multiple dimensions, which have continued through the current results. This brief focuses on the results of the module on Health for residents. Total survey respondents = 2,038 (414 African American/Black respondents).

RESULTS ON HEALTH

• There has been a decline in residents' view of their personal health in Allegheny County since before the COVID19 pandemic. In 2018, 16% of respondents rated their personal health as fair or poor, while in 2023, the fair or poor rating increased to 21%. Lower shares of respondents reported their health as either excellent or very good, 43.1%, compared to 46% in 2018.
  
  
• There are significant differences across demographic groups on perceptions of personal health.
  
  

  * A higher share of Black respondents (40.1%) rated their health as either fair or poor, much higher than 17.6% of Nonblack survey respondents. And a lower share of Black respondents (26.9%) rated their health as excellent or very good, compared to 44% for Nonblack respondents. * As respondents' education increases, so does their assessment of their overall health. 32.7% of people with a high school diploma or less reported their health as excellent or very good, compared to 56.4% for people with a master's degree or higher. 27.3% of people with a high school diploma or less rating their health as fair or poor, compared to 9.1% of people with a master's degree or higher. * The same pattern exists when we look at salary. People with a salary of under $25K were less likely (23%) to rate their health as excellent or very good, while for people earning $100k or more, 62% reported excellent or very good health. Reporting personal health as poor or fair, 41.9% of people in the lower salary category selected fair or poor, compared to 6.9% in the highest salary category. * The survey included questions on the pandemic's impact on stress levels. There were differences by gender and age. Women expressed the greatest increase in stress levels, with 70% indicating that their stress levels increased greatly or increased somewhat since before the pandemic, compared to 57.1% of men. Young adults between the ages of 18-29 had the highest increases in pandemic-related stress, with 80.6% reporting that their stress levels increased greatly or somewhat. For those aged 65+, increased stress was reported by over half of respondents (52.3%). Few respondents reported lower stress levels since before the start of the pandemic.

• Across Allegheny County, 49.3% of respondents reported being very satisfied with the healthcare that they receive. The share of people who are very satisfied with their healthcare increases with age. 74.5% of respondents who are 65+ are very satisfied with the healthcare they receive compared with only 33.7% of people who are 18-29. For respondents who reported that they were either somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the healthcare they receive, the survey found 19.7% of African Americans selected one of these options, compared to 11.4% of all other respondents selected this option.
  
  
• Access to telehealth was critical for many respondents. When asked if, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, was there a time when you put off getting care from your health care provider, 44% responded yes, with slightly higher ratings for women, residents younger than age 45, and City of Pittsburgh residents.
  
  
• There were increases in the use of telehealth during and because of the COVID pandemic. More women (72.3%)
  than men (61.9%) have used telehealth appointments, though both are well over half of respondents. A greater
  number of the white respondents (69.8%) than African American respondents (53.4%) reported using telehealth
  appointments. The 30-44 year old age group reported the highest levels of using telehealth appointments since
  the start of the pandemic, 82.2%. It is interesting to think about the use of telehealth appointments in terms of
  generations, with younger residents much more reliant.

Complete results for the Allegheny County Quality of Life Survey 2023.

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