Characteristics of Those Who Receive Residential Care in the United States

Audiologists may interact with adults who live in residential care communities. If you are an audiologist who works with patients from these communities, you may be interested in learning more about the characteristics of these individuals. 

Melekin and colleagues (2024) used data from the residential care community survey component of the 2022 National Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Study. This study is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics.  

Most of the individuals who resided in these care communities were female (67 percent) and non-Hispanic white (92 percent). Over half (53 percent) were 85 years of age or older. Seventeen percent were beneficiaries of Medicaid. 

The majority (62 percent) of those residing in residential care communities needed assistance with three or more activities of daily living, with the highest percentage of need being assistance with bathing (75 percent) and walking (71 percent). 

Of selected chronic conditions, the majority (58 percent) of residents had high blood pressure followed by “Alzheimer disease or other dementias” (44 percent). Most (73 percent) had been given a diagnosis of more than one of the most commonly reported chronic conditions.

Reference

Melekin A, Sengupta M, Caffrey C. (2024) Residential care community resident characteristics: United States, 2022. NCHS Data Brief (506).