Residents are coming into senior living with higher levels of acuity needs. A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study reveals a growing prevalence of chronic health conditions in communities.
According to the report, in 2025 almost half of residential care communities reported having residents diagnosed with all four chronic conditions tracked by the National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study: Alzheimer disease or other dementias, diabetes, depression and heart disease.
Across all of the communities included in the study, only around 15% reported residents not having any of the aforementioned chronic conditions, while 6% reported residents having one condition; 12% reported having two; and 19% reported three.
And size matters, with the research pointing to the smallest communities as having fewer chronic conditions. Communities with 26 to 50 beds were the most likely to have all four chronic conditions, with 65% reporting so, followed by communities with more than 50 beds at 59%. And, 57% of communities with 11 to 25 beds reported all four. Meanwhile, only 32% of communities with four to 10 beds reported having all four.
Alongside these statistics, residents with all four chronic conditions were more likely to be found in nonmetropolitan areas compared to metropolitan areas, with 62.4% and 45% of communities in these markets identifying residents having them respectively. The study’s authors found regional differences in the prevalence of these chronic health conditions as well, with the Northeast and Midwest having higher percentages of all four chronic conditions in communities at 64% and 58%, respectively, compared to the South and West at 45% and 41%, respectively.
The study also found a greater prevalence of chronic condition presence in nonprofit communities at 54% compared to their for-profit counterparts at 47%, with chain-affiliated communities ranking higher (54%) compared to nonchain-affiliated communities (40%).
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