Last week, Aetna, one of the nation’s largest healthcare companies, has released findings from the new, “What’s Your Healthy?” study, which finds that over half of Americans believe that being overweight doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhealthy – yet, 67% want to lose 25 pounds. Over 1/3 of Americans say they’re living healthier today than 5 years ago.
Close to half (44%) of Americans are more motivated to exercise solo – this is despite a growing group workout trend nationwide that includes pop-up boot camps, hot yoga, and indoor cycling classes. And, if given an extra hour in their day, Americans would rather exercise (18%) than get more sleep (13%).
Here are more of those survey results:
GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES
• Results from the Aetna “What’s Your Healthy?” study reveal that American adults of all ages – Millennials, GenXers and Baby Boomers – feel that their own generation is the healthiest. Nearly 50% of the people surveyed named their own generation as the healthiest followed by their parents’ generation and the younger generation.
• Millennials are far more likely than other age groups to reach for alcohol when stressed -37 percent agree that they often do so.
• Both GenXers and Millennials also tend to snack on unhealthy food when dealing with stress (48 percent and 51 percent) more frequently than Baby Boomers.
EXERCISE & HEALTHY EATING
• Close to half (44%) of Americans are more motivated to be active when they can do it on their own despite a growing group workout trend nationwide that includes pop-up boot camps, hot yoga, and indoor cycling classes.
• Over half of Americans also believe that being overweight doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhealthy
• If given an extra hour in their day, Americans would rather exercise (18%) than get more sleep (13%).
• A third (34%) of Americans say they’re living healthier today than five years ago. Those who are living healthier now attribute it to choosing healthier foods like “side salads instead of French fries” (47%), dialing down alcohol consumption (37%), and going for tougher workouts (34%).
• Interestingly, men were more likely to define healthiness in terms of a major fitness event or goal, like a marathon.
• Americans believe being overweight doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhealthy. In fact, 67% want to lose a median of 25 pounds – equivalent to the weight of a small child. Men are happier than women with their current weight and more women want to lose weight.
STRESS MANAGEMENT
• Getting to the office in the morning doesn’t appear to be as stressful as actually being in the office all day. Only 11 percent of Americans cited driving as a major stressor.
• The workplace topped the list of most stressful places, with more than a quarter (27 percent) of Americans saying they experience the most stress at work, followed by spending time with extended family (12 percent) and their spouse/partner (11 percent).
• While family is a major cause of stress, four-legged members of the family help bring people peace of mind. Nearly 7 in 10 people (69 percent) agree that having a cat or dog can help reduce stress.
SOCIAL MEDIA
• 29% of Americans believe that connecting and sharing on social media has a positive impact on health, especially Millennials and GenXers.
• Moms & Millennials Trust Social Media. Significantly higher percentages of Millennials and GenXers agree that connecting through social media has a positive impact on their health or well-being, find social media is a great way to share health and wellness info, and are inspired to live healthier by what they see on social media.
• A third (34 percent) of moms say that connecting with others on social media has a positive impact on their overall health and wellness, compared with a quarter (24 percent) of dads.
TECH USAGE
• 33% of American surf the internet to relax (this beats out spending time with family & friends, engaging in a hobby, exercising, and having sex!)
• 42% turn to health & wellness websites as a health resource (this beats out conversations with friends, family & spouses, apps, TV/radio, and magazines & newspapers)
• Only 8% of Americans say they’re using fitness tracking apps currently!
The survey, commissioned by Aetna, was conducted online by Harris Interactive among a nationally representative sample of Americans age 25-64. Fieldwork was conducted from April 8 – 19, 2013, and resulted in 1,800 completed questionnaires. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.
