60% Of Older Adults Prefer At-home Care If Their Needs Increase

The majority of older adults in the United States want to live in their own home with a caregiver if their needs become too great to handle alone.

Meanwhile, only 18% said they wanted to live in an assisted living community, according to a new Pew Research study.

For the survey, released Feb. 26, researchers analyzed responses from 2,582 adults age 65 and older.

Pew asked older adults who currently live in their own home without a caregiver what their preference would be if this became untenable. Most, 60%, said they would prefer at-home care. Fewer than a quarter of the respondents, 18%, said they want to live in an assisted living community. Another 8% of the respondents said they wanted “some other arrangement” for aging, and only 1% of respondents said they wanted to live in a nursing home.

More than a quarter of older adults in the upper-income range (28%) said they would prefer to move to assisted living. Only 19% of older adults with middle incomes and 13% of older adults with lower incomes said the same.

It’s no surprise that more people desire at-home care versus moving into a senior living community. But this latest survey indicates that older adults still aren’t completely sure what they want in their next chapter of life.

For instance, among the respondents who said they would prefer to move to assisted living, slightly less than half, 48%, said they were “somewhat” sure of that occurring. Only slightly more than a third of them, 35% believe such a move “is highly likely to happen.” Another 16% said a move into assisted living in the future is “not likely.”

Cost may be one reason for that uncertainty, according to the survey’s authors. Slightly less than one-quarter (21%) of adults ages 65 and older have long-term care insurance that would help cover the costs of assisted living services.

Findings from a separate survey, conducted by Genworth Financial subsidiary CareScout, were released this week and quantified median costs for various long-term care options. The median rate for non-medical home care came in at $35 an hour, which was a 3% year-over-year increase.

Someone needing 44 hours of non-medical home care per week would face annual costs of $80,080. With the median monthly rate going up 5% for assisted living, the median annual cost now totals around $74,400.

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