TY - JOUR T1 - Health numeracy: the importance of domain in assessing numeracy. JF - Med Decis Making Y1 - 2014 A1 - Helen G Levy A1 - Peter A. Ubel A1 - Amanda J. Dillard A1 - David R Weir A1 - Angela Fagerlin KW - Aged KW - Humans KW - Mathematics KW - Middle Aged KW - Self Efficacy KW - Surveys and Questionnaires KW - Task Performance and Analysis AB -

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Existing research concludes that measures of general numeracy can be used to predict individuals' ability to assess health risks. We posit that the domain in which questions are posed affects the ability to perform mathematical tasks, raising the possibility of a separate construct of "health numeracy" that is distinct from general numeracy. The objective was to determine whether older adults' ability to perform simple math depends on domain.

METHODS: Community-based participants completed 4 math questions posed in 3 different domains: a health domain, a financial domain, and a pure math domain. Participants were 962 individuals aged 55 and older, representative of the community-dwelling US population over age 54.

RESULTS: We found that respondents performed significantly worse when questions were posed in the health domain (54% correct) than in either the pure math domain (66% correct) or the financial domain (63% correct). Our experimental measure of numeracy consisted of only 4 questions, and it is possible that the apparent effect of domain is specific to the mathematical tasks that these questions require.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that health numeracy is strongly related to general numeracy but that the 2 constructs may not be the same. Further research is needed into how different aspects of general numeracy and health numeracy translate into actual medical decisions.

PB - 34 VL - 34 UR - http://mdm.sagepub.com/content/34/1/107.abstract IS - 1 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23824401?dopt=Abstract U4 - Health Numeracy/Health Literacy/Health Literacy/Cognition ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Health, wealth, and happiness: financial resources buffer subjective well-being after the onset of a disability. JF - Psychol Sci Y1 - 2005 A1 - Dylan M Smith A1 - Kenneth M. Langa A1 - Mohammed U Kabeto A1 - Peter A. Ubel KW - Activities of Daily Living KW - Cross-Sectional Studies KW - Disability Evaluation KW - Female KW - Follow-Up Studies KW - Happiness KW - Health Status KW - Humans KW - Male KW - Middle Aged KW - Quality of Life KW - Socioeconomic factors AB -

We examined the hypothesis that the relationship between financial status and subjective well-being, typically found to be very small in cross-sectional studies, is moderated by health status. Specifically, we predicted that wealth would buffer well-being after the onset of a disability. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal study of people at and approaching retirement age, we employed within-subjects analyses to test whether wealth measured prior to the onset of a disability protected participants' well-being from some of the negative effects of a new disability. We found support for this hypothesis: Participants who were above the median in total net worth reported a much smaller decline in well-being after a new disability than did participants who were below the median. We also found some evidence that the buffering effect of wealth faded with time, as below-median participants recovered some of their well-being.

PB - 16 VL - 16 IS - 9 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16137249?dopt=Abstract U4 - Health Status/Subjective/Wealth/Disability/Disability ER -