DALLAS — Older adults who live in senior living communities live longer, receive more healthcare services and benefit from greater rehabilitative and preventive care within the first two years of moving into a community compared with their peers living in the greater community, according to new research from NORC at the University of Chicago.
The results highlight where senior living is doing well and can help providers promote the value of the setting to prospective residents and their families, according to Dianne Munevar, vice president of healthcare strategy at NORC. She delivered the results of the latest collaborative research report with the National Investment for Seniors Housing & Care on Tuesday during the first day of the 2024 NIC Spring Conference.
The report focuses on the relationships between senior living, longevity and preventive health for older adults.
“This research builds a holistic picture of longevity for older adults who recently moved into senior housing communities,” Munevar said. “Longevity is not only adding years to life, but also adding life to years.”
Bob Kramer, co-founder, past president / CEO and current strategic adviser to NIC, told attendees in a session at the conference that the study for the first time provides large-scale, independent data to back the anecdotal experiences of operators showing the value of senior living. Investors and operators “should be jumping up and down” about the results, he said.
Lisa McCracken, head of research and analytics at NIC, said that the organization will look to operators for ideas about how to make sure consumers get the message.
”Senior housing and care communities support older adults by keeping them healthy at home,” NIC President and CEO Ray Braun said. “As healthcare consumers continue to demand more accountability and better outcomes, the study shows there are tremendous opportunities for the senior living sector to integrate healthcare and housing, which can better meet consumer preferences and reduce the cost of care over time.
The report looked at outcomes in continuing care retirement communities, independent living, assisted living and memory care communities related to six measures of longevity: mortality, days alive, days away from home due to adverse health events, days receiving home healthcare, preventive and rehabilitative health services days, and days on antipsychotic medications. The study did not include skilled nursing residents.
The research period covered 2017-2019 — the two years before the COVID-19 pandemic — and compared those who moved into senior living communities with their peers living in the same nine-digit ZIP code. NORC used data from NIC MAP Vision and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to parse out the data.
Senior living’s value proposition
The year before an older adult moves into senior living is a “critically sensitive time” for people. The report looked to answer the question of what do senior living communities need to do to mitigate the risk of experiencing more adverse events?
What the data showed was that individuals who moved into senior living lived longer — an average of 10 days longer — than their community-dwelling peers. The mortality rate for senior living residents was 20.1%, compared with 22.4% for older adults living in the greater community.
Senior living residents also received 10 more days of home healthcare services and four more days of preventive and rehabilitative services than their greater community-dwelling peers. Senior living residents also spent an average of three fewer days on antipsychotic medications than older adults in other settings.
The two settings were comparable for days spent away from home for an adverse health event: 12.4 days for older adults in the general community compared with 13.3 days for senior living residents.
Wide variations seen across property types
Munvear said the data also showed wide variations in results across the industry and property type, a finding that will inform future research.
Residents in the top 25% of senior living communities lived an average of 70 days longer than those in the bottom 25% of communities. The top 25% of communities also provided more than 40 more days of home healthcare than the bottom 25%. The data also showed that CCRC residents lived almost two weeks longer than older adults in the greater community.
In the top 25% of independent living and assisted living communities, residents received 40 more days of home health visits than their peers in the bottom 25% of communities. And assisted living and memory care communities had the greatest variation in days of preventive and rehabilitative health services.
“Senior housing operators can capitalize on the growing demand and strengthen the appeal of senior housing communities by differentiating the scope of preventative health services available in their community relative to what’s available to community-dwelling older adults,” Munevar said.
This is the third report to come out of the NIC / NORC collaboration assessing the health and well-being of senior living and care residents. Previous reports looked at older adult vulnerability and frailty and access to healthcare providers. The final report will focus on the health outcomes of residents in senior living settings.
McCracken said that NIC is “pivoting” to provide research to the industry related to NIC’s strategic plan focus areas: partnering for health, the middle market, active adult, capital for operations, and agetech. The organization has formed a research committee, which met for the first time on Monday, she said. Members include Kramer, MJ Ritschel, chief investment officer of Kisco Senior Living (chair); Jonathan Woodrow, CEO of LivingPath (vice chair); Susan Barlow, co-founder, managing partner and chief operating officer of Blue Moon Capital Partners; Rahul Bhangare, vice president of data science at Ventas; Brad Frasher, chairman and CEO of Aline, Marshall Hillman, executive director at JLL; Mary Leary, president and CEO of Mather, Molly McEvily, vice president of corporate communications at Ventas; and Samantha Medred, chief financial officer and partner at HealthTrust.
Tuesday was the first day of the 2024 NIC Spring Conference, which Braun said had attracted 1,825 registrants as of Monday. The number of attendees, he added, was the second largest ever for the organization’s spring meeting.
The meeting continues through Thursday.
