Healthcare and wellness go hand in hand and it is not always that you will need to visit a doctor, a dietician, a physical trainer or spend lots of money on enrolling in a fitness program or buy costly equipment of that matter. There are ways in which you can look after your own health and wellness on your own, and even in your home. Health care proxies, insurance, financial literacy and a healthy lifestyle are just a few examples.
A lot of the millennials do health care their own way. These millennials, sometimes also called Generation Y, seems to be growing up in health and wellness awareness, thanks to the internet that provides a whole lot of information from around the world which are available to them at their fingertips.
In addition to that, the rise of social media and its importance in the lives of the people has led the way in using different platforms for social messaging and sharing info and messages through their mobile devices. This has in fact helped them to stay connected with people 24/7.
Yet, as several of the sought jobs, the Great Recession hit.
• This has made these experiencesas well as several of their sheer numbers, formidable health care consumers.
• This has also made the millennials go their own way and take the steering wheel on the road of health care and shape it up for them.
According to research, this is the concern of every fourth of all Americans.
Millennials Want Digital Access
Pew Research says that the generation of millennials vary with the source but mostly millennials are considered to be those people who were born between 1981 and 1996. Therefore, if this is considered to be true then these millennials are “adulting.”
This means that they are now grown up enough to make their own wellness and health decisions for themselves and make plans for them and their families. It is this choice of theirs that is shaking up the health care industry.
The millennials are more tech savvy than baby boomers and want technology-based solutions to their issues. For example, if they want to know about a specific company and its services, they will simple log onto neutral third-party review sites such as Angles List or Better Business Bureau, or look up at LibertyLending.com or others for alternative yet reliable lending options. They are also more inclined to search for a term like “dentist near me tewksbury” on the internet to find a dentist that they can visit.
Pew Research Center has found that:
• 92% of millennials own smartphones
• More than 50% own tablets and
• Nearly all millennials use the internet to access sites for information.
Many of these millennials access the internet only by using their smartphones. When social media is concerned,
• 82% use Facebook
• More than 50% use Instagram
• 50% use Snapchat.
Therefore, millennials and the members of Generation X are more prone to access their recommendations, payments and servicesoptions online.
• A study conducted by the New York City health center found that these people are more likely than the other generations to use the patient portal.
• Another Salesforce survey found that 6 out of 10 of the millennials support telemedicine that includes video chats instead of in-person visits.
More of the millennials even feel more comfortable in using a mobile app and want their doctors to give them a mobile app so that they can:
• Bookappointments with them
• Review their health records and
• Manage their preventive health care programs.
On the other hand, there are even a considerable number of millennials that even prefer using wearable devices to:
• Share their health data with their doctors
• Know about the medications they need to take or change and
• Track the vital signs after they have it.
In fact, it is this easy and more convenient digital access which is one way that has helped the millennials to take care of their wellness on their own.
Use Various Sources
Millennials also look for various sources for medical information apart from their physicians. This is because the natural mistrust they have on different authority. This mistrust ahs developed in them due to several reasons and after several different incidents such as:
• The Great financial crisis
• The 9/11 attacks
• The sharply climbing academic debt and of course
• One of the most controversial and divisive elections in history.
A recent research by Grayhealth and Kantar Health showed that only 41% of millennials trust their physicians as the most reliable and best source of health information. On the other hand, hardly a fourth of the people surveyed agreed that their doctors and the pharmacists provide them with the required information that helps them to make any decisions.
It is for this reason that the millennials prefer to research health care online than the baby boomers. This millennial ranging between the age group of 20 and 30-somethings and are well-educated and tech savvy to compare different treatment options as well as check the quality ratings of different doctors and hospitals.
In addition to that, they also try out other sources for gaining more information regarding wellness and health care such as:
• Consultingtheir friends and family
• Visiting different guest blogs and articles published on different websites on the internet and
• Reviewing different message boards and websites such as WebMD and Mayo Clinic.
However, when one has too many information in hand, it can hinder their decision making.
Look for Cost Transparency
Lastly, millennials look for cost transparency. This is because the millennials are more likely to be unemployed as compared to the prior generations were at the same age. This is why millennials fret about the cost of health care.
In 2017, the Employee Benefit Research Institute in association with Greenwald and Associates found that out of the 3,560 adults having health insurance polled, the millennials across generations reported that they are more worried about the cost.As a result, they are more inclined to find out whether or not their insurance covered the cost of their care and discuss their treatment costs with their doctor.
A PNC poll also found that millennials ask for a price estimate upfront than older patients and 50% confirmed that they skip or delay health care just because of costs.
All these approaches affect their health and wellness.
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