Community Trends

The Insights section presents ten core themes that emerged from what we heard across our research. These speak broadly to the needs and aspirations of all our older adult participants.

In contrast, this trends page presents the key topics that came up most often in the seven locations where we conducted research and among our three priority populations—people of color, people living on limited incomes, and people in rural and medically underserved areas. 

Note that these trends were not very pronounced: while we've highlighted below those topics that were more likely to come up in certain locations and among particular populations, most of our top ten topics across the entire participant pool remained consistent even at the community and target-population level. Our older adults' interests and concerns are more similar to one another than they are different.

Trends by Priority Population

Lower Income

Mental Health was the only topic that was in the top ten among our participants with household incomes below 138% of the Federal Povery Level (FPL), but not in the general top ten. Medicare and Chronic Health Conditions & Management came up more frequently in the lower-income group than in the research pool as a whole.

People of Color

Among participants who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC), the topic of Chronic Health Conditions & Management was in the top ten, but it does not appear in the top ten across the whole pool. People of color more frequently discussed Mindsets & Worldviews and Health Attitudes & Perceptions than did the total research pool.

Rural

Among our participants who live in rural areas, Technology, Routines & Activities, and Healthcare Costs were all in the top ten, though not in the top ten across all participants.

Trends by Location

Click on research locations below to see our data filtered by the topic areas that were more prevalent in that location than across the whole research pool. Click on individual topics and subtopics below each research location to see data filtered for that location in relation to that topic or subtopic.