Commonwealth Fund survey, 2021

March 24, 2022 — The Commonwealth Fund’s International Health Policy surveys fill important information gaps by polling patients and providers in 11 developed countries. The 2021 edition focused on the views and experiences of adults age 65 and older. Topic areas covered in the survey include the health of seniors, primary and specialist care, hospital care, home care, end-of-life care planning and the overall perception of the health system.

Learn more about Canadian seniors’ experiences with their health care systems and examine how these experiences vary across Canada and relative to other developed countries, as well as how they have been impacted during the pandemic.

Key findings

  • Virtual care: More Canadian seniors (71%) reported having had virtual appointments with a health care provider in the past 12 months, compared with the Commonwealth Fund (CMWF) average of 39%.
  • Access to care: Access to same- or next-day appointments, as well as access to after-hours care, remains a challenge. During the pandemic, 29% of Canadian seniors had also had an appointment cancelled or postponed, higher than the CMWF average of 19%.
  • Social isolation: The proportion of Canadian seniors who reported feeling isolated often or some of the time more than doubled in 2021 (37%), compared with 2017 (17%). Canada had the highest proportion among the 11 countries surveyed. 

Featured materials

Chartbook

This chartbook presents analyses of the results of the Commonwealth Fund’s survey of older adults.

Chartbook(PDF)

Data tables

View more than 60 data tables on the Commonwealth Fund’s 2021 survey of older adults.

Data tables(XLSX)

Methodology notes

Get an overview of the sampling methodology, response rate, coverage, weighting of results and significance testing.

Methodology notes(PDF)

Data requests

Commonwealth Fund survey data from 2004 onward is available free of charge to all students and researchers. If you are interested in accessing data or getting more information on the survey, email us:

  cmwf@cihi.ca

Related resources

 

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