Residents living in assisted living and other residential care communities in 2022 mostly were female (67%), white (92%) and 85 or older (53%), according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The CDC said that data from the National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study outlined in the profile of residential care community residents in 2022 would help inform policymakers, providers, researchers and consumer advocates planning to help meet the needs of a rapidly growing older adult population. In addition to assisted living communities, settings covered by the profile, released Wednesday, include personal care homes, adult care homes, board care homes and adult foster care.
Most residents were aged 85 or more years (53%), followed by 75-84 (31%), 65-74 (10%) and or younger than 65 (6%).
The most common activities of daily living residents needed assistance with were bathing (75%) and walking (71%), followed by dressing (60%), transferring to a bed or chair (57%), toileting (51%) and eating (28%). According to the data, 62% of residents needed assistance with three or more activities of daily living, 26% needed help with one or two activities of daily living, and 12% did not require any assistance.
A substantial population of residential care community residents had diagnoses of high blood pressure (58%), Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias (44%), or heart disease (33%). Other chronic conditions included depression (26%), arthritis (18%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (16%), diabetes (16%), osteoporosis (12%), stroke (7%) and cancer (6%).
Approximately 18% of residents had received diagnoses of four to 10 of the most common chronic conditions, 55% had diagnoses of up to three chronic conditions, 19% had diagnoses of at least one of those conditions, and the remaining 8% had not received a diagnosis of any chronic condition.
Overall, 17% of residents were Medicaid beneficiaries; residents younger than 75 made up the largest percentage of Medicaid beneficiaries (32%), followed by residents aged 75-84 (19%) and residents aged 85 or more years (12%).
White non-Hispanic individuals accounted for the majority of residents (92%) in 2022, with only 2% identifying as Black non-Hispanic, and 6% identifying as another race or of Hispanic origin.
