TY - JOUR T1 - The Impact of Consumer Numeracy on the Purchase of Long-Term Care Insurance. JF - Health Serv Res Y1 - 2016 A1 - Brian E McGarry A1 - Temkin-Greener, Helena A1 - Chapman, Benjamin P A1 - David C Grabowski A1 - Li, Yue KW - Consumer Behavior KW - Financing, Personal KW - Health Surveys KW - Humans KW - Insurance, Long-Term Care KW - Middle Aged AB -

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of consumers' numeric abilities on the likelihood of owning private long-term care insurance.

DATA SOURCE: The 2010 wave of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative survey of Americans age 50 and older, was used (n = 12,796).

STUDY DESIGN: Multivariate logistic regression was used to isolate the relationship between numeracy and long-term care insurance ownership.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Each additional question answered correctly on a numeracy scale was associated with a 13 percent increase in the likelihood of holding LTCI, after controlling for predictors of policy demand, education, and cognitive function.

CONCLUSIONS: Poor numeracy may create barriers to long-term care insurance purchase. Policy efforts aimed at increasing consumer decision support or restructuring the marketplace for long-term care insurance may be needed to increase older adults' ability to prepare for future long-term care expenses.

VL - 51 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26799778 IS - 4 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26799778?dopt=Abstract U4 - Older adults Long-term care Insurance Health insurance ER -