It’s an unhealthy sign of the times — more people know how many vacation days they have left (47 percent) than how many calories they consumed yesterday (43 percent). And doctors aren’t surprised, as 77 percent of healthcare professionals say that one fourth or more of their patients omit facts or lie to them about their personal health. Those are just some of the results from the new GE Better Health Study conducted with Cleveland Clinic and Ochsner Health System. As the first in a series that will examine healthy living attitudes and behaviors, the study is part of GE’s healthymagination initiative, which seeks to provide better health for more people through technology and innovation. At the same time, because understanding massive amounts of health data can be daunting, GE is also working to make better sense of it by partnering with health economists and leading visualization designers. Below, in our seventh data visualization project, we’ve again turned to Ben Fry to help make some of the new survey data not only more accessible, but interactive.
And the survey says! Click on the graphic to use the visualization tool on our healthymagination.com website. It highlights a selection of the Better Health survey questions so that you can answer them yourself — and then see how your responses compare to the broader survey results.
As part of GE’s healthymagination efforts at this year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, GE is working with Michelle Kwan — a two-time Olympic champion and five-time World Champion figure skater — to help increase awareness about consumer health tools available on healthymagination.com and the ways in which you can take charge of your own health. As she says in the video below, “It’s important to go to your doctors — not just to listen to your doctors but to be proactive. Do your research.”
Among other findings in GE’s new survey, is that 92 percent of healthcare professionals give Americans far lower grades — “C” or lower — on managing their personal health than Americans give to themselves. At the same time, many Americans say they would rather live in pain (47 percent) than visit their doctor — and they prioritize household chores over healthy living. For example, 33 percent of respondents said time is the single biggest challenge to living healthier, yet 50 percent spend more time cleaning their house or thinking about living in a cleaner house than taking care of their personal health (44 percent). The study surveyed more than 3,000 people — 1,000 of whom were healthcare professionals.
It also found that most Americans see the health of others on the wrong track — but not their own. Yet, when asked what their personal health numbers are, only 24 percent knew their body mass index (BMI); just 29 percent knew their blood glucose level; only one third new their daily caloric intake; and only 36 percent knew their current cholesterol levels.
* Click here to read the full details about GE’s new health survey.
Try out our other visualization tools:
* Seed’s The Cost of Getting Sick tool shows the cost of chronic conditions
* Seed’s Health Issues tool shows how some conditions are related to one another
* Seed’s How’s Your Health Profile? tool lets you see conditions common to your profile
* GOOD’s Cost of Chronic Diseases info-graphic shows the costs of leading diseases
* GOOD’s Causes of Death info-graphic shows the leading causes by age
* GOOD’s World Health info-graphic shows the money 12 countries spend on healthcare
* See all of GE’s data visualizations in one place
* See a video in “Ben Fry & Seed labs visualize The Cost of Getting Sick”
* Learn more about our healthymagination business strategy
* Read more Olympics stories on GE Reports