Older adults report concerns about physical, financial consequences of elective surgery
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Key takeaways:
- Older adults who are considering elective surgery reported concerns about the physical and financial implications of surgery.
- These patients were less likely to undergo elective surgery.
According to published results, older adults who are considering elective surgery reported concerns about the physical aspects of surgery, as well as the financial and employment consequences.
In August of 2021, Nicholas L. Berlin, MD, MPH, MS, and colleagues surveyed 2,110 older adults (mean age of 63.7 years) from the University of Michigan National Poll on Heathy Aging using the National Opinion Research Center AmeriSpeak panel. They asked respondents whether they had considered elective surgery within the past 5 years and asked them to rate their concerns about the following surgery-related factors: pain or discomfort, recovery, out-of-pocket costs and employment.
According to the study, 676 adults (32%) reported considering elective surgery in the prior 5 years. Of these patients, 450 (66%) underwent surgery. The most common types of elective surgery considered were hip or knee replacement (18.1%), eye surgery (12.4%), abdominal surgery (10.2%), cosmetic surgery (8.8%) and lower extremity surgery (6.8%).
Among all adults who considered surgery, 417 (64.3%) reported being “very concerned or somewhat concerned” about pain or discomfort, while 379 (57.2%) reported being concerned about recovery.
In addition, 22.9% of adults were concerned about out-of-pocket costs, 18.9% were concerned about exposure to COVID-19 and 20.2% were concerned about the time needed to be off work. After multivariable logistic regression, researchers found these patients were less likely to undergo surgery.
Berlin and colleagues concluded that system- and policy-level solutions are required to address these patients’ concerns.
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