New poll will take the pulse of Michiganders over 50 on key health topics

As the nation's 10th most populous state, and with 1 in 4 residents projected to be over the age of 60 by 2030, Michigan has a pressing need to understand the knowledge, experiences and opinions of its older residents around health and wellbeing. 

Enter the Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging. 

Starting in May 2024, the poll will take the pulse of Michiganders over 50 on a wide range of health-related topics, with support from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund. 

The poll grew out of, and uses the same infrastructure as, the National Poll on Healthy Aging that has been run by the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation since 2017, with support from AARP and Michigan Medicine.

The Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging welcomes anyone with an interest in issues affecting older adults in the state to sign up to receive email alerts about new poll findings. 

Several times a year, the IHPI team will compile brief reports featuring Michigan-specific findings, and will release them with reports on national poll findings. The team will also release Michigan-focused interactive data graphics.

The national poll's data are available for free for researchers, journalists, students, community organizations, policymakers and members of the the public to use.

In November 2023, the poll team released Michigan-specific findings about older adults' experiences with scams, showcasing similarities and differences between the national sample of older adults and a sample of more than 550 Michigan older adults. Starting in May 2024, the national and Michigan poll samples will be even larger, and weighted to reflect the national and state populations.

Since its launch, the National Poll on Healthy Aging has provided key insights into many topics, and yielded numerous academic presentations and publications, as well as informing media coverage, health policy development and public dialogue. Many reports have benefited from the specialized expertise of IHPI members from the U-M faculty, in addition to poll team leaders and staff. 

The poll is directed by Jeffrey Kullgren, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., an associate professor of internal medicine at U-M and primary care physician at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.