Gallup and Healthways published a five-part series gauging American’s health and well-being throughout the Obama Administration, based on daily interviews with at least 500 U.S. adults.
Here are five key takeways from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
1. The standard of living for most Americans has improved since President Obama took office in 2009. To measure this, Gallup uses a “Standard of Living Index,” which is based on two questions, one about satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a person’s standard of living and the other about whether that standard of living is improving or not. In 2009, the average standard of living index was 26. It has improved almost two-fold to 50 in 2016. Both views of life and the direction life is moving have improved.
2. People are “thriving.” In fact, 2016 is on pace to set a new record for the percentage of Americans who rate life high enough to be considered “thriving” by Gallup since it began tracking this metric nine years ago. In 2009, 51.6 percent of Americans were considered thriving, compared to 55.4 percent today. This improvement has been seen across racial and ethnic groups. However, black Americans, who flourished more than any other racial group from 2008 to 2010 — improving by 13 percentage points — have stopped thriving. In fact, their life evaluations have dropped since 2010 — not to 2008 levels, but below 2010 levels. “These results dovetail with blacks’ collective sentiment that Obama has not done enough to improve black Americans’ standard of living,” according to Gallup.
3. Healthcare reform worked, to a degree. Since 2013, the year before the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the rate of uninsured Americans has dropped dramatically, from 17.3 percent to 10.8 percent so far in 2016, according to Gallup and Healthways. Additionally, Gallup and Healthways report that the percentage of Americans who have trouble affording treatments and medicines is at a record low. Despite these improvements, U.S. adults say they have yet to see improvement in healthcare costs and quality.
4. The actual health of the American lifestyle has improved only marginally. For example, smoking rates are down from 21 percent in 2009 to 18 percent in 2016. The percentage of Americans who exercise regularly is up slightly, from 51.4 percent in 2008 to 53.8 percent in 2016. However, people are not eating as healthy. Just 64.2 percent of American adults report eating healthy on any given day, compared to 66.1 percent in 2008. But since the consumption of produce has remained fairly steady, Gallup suggests less Americans report a healthy diet today because they now have a better understanding of what is considered healthy.
5. Americans view themselves as less healthy than before. In 2008, 22.6 percent of Americans rated their own health as excellent. That percentage is down to 19 percent for the first half of 2016. This may be because more Americans are reporting major chronic health issues, such as diabetes and obesity. Americans have improved one health factor, though. High cholesterol is down across all major racial and ethnic groups, according to Gallup and Healthways.
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