Disparities in Health, Challenges of Aging Population Highlight Connecticut’s 3-Year State Plan on Aging

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought renewed attention to the considerable disparities in healthcare and health outcomes among individuals of various racial groups in Connecticut.  While the awareness has grown and focus has intensified, the recent data is consistent with findings highlighted in the State Plan on Aging, which was approved by the federal government last year as Connecticut’s blueprint for the next three years. 

The development of Connecticut’s three-year State Plan on Aging, “Building Bridges and Creating Connections,” which took effect five months ago, aligned with the emergence of a newly reconstructed agency, the Department of Aging and Disability Services (ADS).  Governor Ned Lamont signed legislation renaming the Department of Rehabilitation Services (DORS) as the Department of Aging and Disability Services (ADS) in July 2019.

The plan noted that Connecticut is the nation’s 7th oldest state, and “though a healthy state by many measures, Connecticut experiences troubling health disparities by race and economic status.”  The State Plan straightforwardly states that “Addressing social determinants of health can improve health and reduce health disparities.”

The State Plan explains that “According to the state Department of Public Health’s Health Disparities Report, mortality data shows that African Americans suffer more than other racial and ethnic subgroups in Connecticut from the major chronic diseases of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other causes of death.”

“’A black patient hospitalized for chest pain in Connecticut is 20% more likely than a white patient to be readmitted within 30 days after discharge. Similarly, a Hispanic patient hospitalized for heart failure is 30% more likely to land back in the hospital within a month. Those disparities are among the most common reasons for hospitalizations among state residents and point to larger problems in access to care, underlying health status and insurance coverage’, according to a 2015 published study in Connecticut Medicine, the journal of the Connecticut State Medical Society.”

The State Plan points out that “Health disparity issues are becoming more prominent in our collective work, as the population ages and becomes more diverse. The pandemic brought this issue into the forefront when people of color and those with chronic health conditions experienced greater rates of hospitalization and death. During the pandemic, hospitalizations and death rates were 2-3 times higher among Black and Latino populations in CT.”

“Addressing social determinants of health can improve health and reduce health disparities. Initiatives to address these social determinants … include seamless connection to and between Information and Referral systems, nutrition programs and availability and accessibility of transportation to promote health,” the State Plan explains. 

Economic Security is also a focus of the Connecticut State Plan on Aging.  The Plan points out that “Undeniably, Connecticut is a wealthier state and its relatively high cost of living can prove to be a challenge for people on fixed incomes.”

The wealth gap in Connecticut, the report states, “is particularly profound. In Fairfield County, 20.4 percent of households earn $200,000 or more a year, compared to 8 percent in New Haven County and 3.3 percent in Bridgeport, the largest city in Fairfield County.”

Data highlighted in the State Plan include that between 2010 and 2040, Connecticut’s age 65 and older population is on pace to increase by 57%. However, the projected growth of the population between the age of 20 - 64 is less than 2%, and the age 19 and under population is projected to decline by 7%. 

Connecticut continues to grow older while the working age population stays fairly constant, the State Plan indicates - 9.1% of the Connecticut population is 65 to 74 years old, 4.8% is 75 to 84 years old and 2. 5% is 85 years old or older. Approximately, 80,000 people have Alzheimer’s disease in Connecticut, according to the 2020 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report by the Alzheimer’s Association.

Overall, Connecticut’s State Plan on Aging has three primary goals and objectives:

• Long-Term Services and Supports: Empower older adults to reside in the community setting of their choice

• Healthy Aging: Provide older adults with prevention and wellness opportunities

• Elder Rights: Protect elder rights and well-being and prevent elder abuse, fraud, neglect and exploitation.

Commissioner Amy Porter, in the executive summary of the State Plan, stated “During our strategic planning process, we have been exceedingly mindful of the demographic trends in our state.”  She added “Undeniably, every community in Connecticut, minus a few outliers, is aging quickly. Although challenges in such population shifts exist, we prefer to embrace it as a force of momentum of built-in experiences and insights pushing all of us toward new capacities.”

The agency’s mission is “Maximizing opportunities for the independence and well-being of people with disabilities and older adults in Connecticut.”