Self-care statistics show a persistent gap between what women value and what they can consistently do. In the Gallup Hologic U.S. Women’s Health Survey, 63% of U.S. women said it was hard to make their health a top priority. The reasons include limited time, cost, emotional strain, sleep problems, and the responsibility of caring for others.
Contents
- Health priorities and barriers
- Self-care across generations
- Screenings and preventive care
- Mental health and emotional well-being
- Sleep as a self-care measure
- Family, work, and access
- Wellness spending and outcomes
Health priorities and barriers
The Gallup Hologic U.S. Women’s Health Survey found that half of U.S. women, 50%, named mental and emotional health as a top health concern. Sleep followed at 47%, while 40% named weight, 37% named nutrition or diet, and 35% named chronic conditions.
Yet concern does not always translate into action. Sixty-three percent of U.S. women said making their health a top priority was hard. Among women who said prioritizing health was difficult, 72% identified feeling too overwhelmed as the biggest barrier. Mental health issues were themselves a barrier for 60% of women.
Time and money also shape the practical meaning of self-care. Among women with children under 18 at home, 67% said not having enough time gets in the way of making their health a top priority. Fifty-five percent in the same group cited not having enough money. These findings describe self-care as a question of capacity and access, not simply motivation.
The same survey found that 46% of women believed women’s health issues were not a priority at all among U.S. elected officials. That perception adds a broader institutional dimension to individual health decisions.
Self-care across generations
Difficulty prioritizing health varied substantially by generation in the Gallup Hologic U.S. Women’s Health Survey. Gen Z women had the highest reported difficulty: 74% said it was hard to prioritize their health. The figure was 70% among millennial women and 68% among Generation X women.
Older generations reported lower, though still substantial, levels. Fifty-two percent of baby boomer women said it was hard to prioritize health, compared with 39% of Silent Generation women.
| Generation | Share saying prioritizing health is hard |
|---|---|
| Gen Z women | 74% |
| Millennial women | 70% |
| Generation X women | 68% |
| Baby boomer women | 52% |
| Silent Generation women | 39% |
Mental and emotional health also differed across age groups. Fifty-seven percent of Generation X women said their mental and emotional health gets in the way of making health a top priority. The corresponding figures were 44% for baby boomer women and 29% for Silent Generation women. These are survey responses about perceived barriers, not clinical diagnoses.
Screenings and preventive care
The Hologic U.S. Health Survey: The Screening Action Gap found that 90% of U.S. women considered regular health screenings important to them. Sixty-three percent called screenings very important, and 27% called them somewhat important. Smaller shares said screenings were not too important, at 8%, or not at all important, at 2%; 4% said they did not know how important screenings were.
Importance did not eliminate delays. Forty-three percent of U.S. women said they had skipped or delayed a recommended health screening. Among women who skipped or delayed one, 41% said breast cancer was one of the missed screening types, 35% said cervical cancer, and 33% said colorectal cancer.
Other missed screening types included osteoporosis and diabetes, each reported by 11% of women who skipped or delayed a screening. Skin cancer and sexually transmitted infections were each reported by 9%, while cholesterol was also 9%. Heart disease was reported by 8%.
The PYMNTS 2024 Women’s Wellness Index adds a behavioral measure: women who followed recommended preventive healthcare very or extremely well scored 12% above the average Women’s Wellness Index score. Women who followed it somewhat well scored 3.4% below average, while women who did not follow recommended preventive healthcare well scored 14% below average.
Mental health and emotional well-being
The KFF Women’s Health Survey found that 28% of women ages 18 to 64 described their mental health or emotional well-being as fair or poor. Twenty-nine percent of women in that age range received mental health services in the past 12 months.
Care use was higher among women reporting greater need. Among women who described their mental health as fair or poor, 48% received mental health care in the past year. Among women with a self-reported mental health-related disability, 81% received mental health care during that period.
The KFF survey also recorded how women received care. Of women who received mental health services, 60% got one-on-one in-person care and 55% used telehealth care. Fifty-two percent were prescribed medication. Smaller shares received care through a mental health therapy app, at 7%, or inpatient hospitalization or group therapy, at 8%.
Together, these figures show that self-care can include formal care and treatment. They also show that describing mental well-being as a priority does not mean every woman has the same level of access to services.
Sleep as a self-care measure
Sleep was the second-most-cited top health concern in the Gallup Hologic U.S. Women’s Health Survey, named by 47% of U.S. women. CDC National Health Interview Survey results for 2024 provide additional detail on sleep problems.
In 2024, 18.5% of women had trouble falling asleep most days or every day, compared with 12.2% of men. During the same period, 21.4% of women had trouble staying asleep most days or every day, compared with 14.6% of men.
Among U.S. adults in 2024, 30.5% had short sleep duration and 54.8% woke up well-rested. The adult figures were 15.4% for trouble falling asleep most days or every day and 18.1% for trouble staying asleep most days or every day. The women’s and men’s figures above are gender-specific; the adult figures cover U.S. adults overall.
| 2024 sleep measure | Women | Men | U.S. adults |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trouble falling asleep most days or every day | 18.5% | 12.2% | 15.4% |
| Trouble staying asleep most days or every day | 21.4% | 14.6% | 18.1% |
| Short sleep duration | — | — | 30.5% |
| Woke up well-rested | — | — | 54.8% |
Family, work, and access
The CMS MCBS 2022 Women’s Health Data Book reported that 34% of women Medicare beneficiaries living in the community had four or more chronic conditions in 2022. In the same year, 25% of women had incomes below 138% of the federal poverty level, and 9% of women Medicare beneficiaries living in the community reported trouble getting health care they wanted or needed.
Family structure was linked to wellness patterns in the PYMNTS 2024 Women’s Wellness Index. Mothers were 14% less likely than single women without children to seek preventive medical services and 6.5% less likely to seek dental care. Seventy-one percent of moms got preventive medical care.
The same index found that 30% of single women without children placed their wellness as a top priority above all others. By comparison, 28% of mothers in nuclear families prioritized the health of family members over their own. Mothers in nuclear families were 55% more likely to place family health above personal well-being than the other way around.
Household work was a reported hindrance for 34% of mothers cohabitating with a partner and 23% of single mothers. Both groups cited lack of time due to household chores as a primary obstacle to managing their own health and wellness.
The Conferences for Women 2024 report found that 97.63% of women considered health and well-being in the workplace very or extremely important. This makes workplace conditions another relevant setting for self-care, alongside home and healthcare environments.
Wellness spending and outcomes
The PYMNTS 2024 Women’s Wellness Index used a 0 to 100 scale, with 53 as the average score. The report found that women who had not had access to medical care in the last 12 months scored 37.7% below average.
Spending and wellness were also associated in the index. Every additional $500 spent on health raised the Women’s Wellness Index score by 3.15 for women and by 2.95 for men. These are index relationships reported by PYMNTS, not a claim that spending alone causes better health.
Women incurred 20% more out-of-pocket healthcare expenses per year than men, according to the PYMNTS 2024 Women’s Wellness Index. At the same time, women were 11% more likely than men to have researched aspects of health and wellness on their own and 19% more likely to understand how to identify the best medical and wellness providers.
The index also showed differences within groups of women. Single women without children spent 11% more on health each month than single men. Single women without children were 16% less likely to seek preventive help for diet and nutrition and 20% less likely to seek preventive help for exercise.
Millennial women who cohabitated with a partner but had no children scored 11% lower on wellness than single childfree millennial women. Millennial women who cohabitated with a partner and had children scored 24% lower, while single mothers’ wellness scores dropped 33% relative to single childfree millennial women.
These comparisons place women’s self-care within a measurable system of time, money, health needs, care access, and competing responsibilities. The statistics point to self-care as an ongoing part of health maintenance rather than a single activity or purchase.