Strategies to improve health and financial literacy across the lifespan as a potential public health lever¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (3 for, 1 mixed) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Based on their finding that literacy is associated with health promoting behaviors and health status, the authors recommend literacy improvement as a public health strategy. They write that "strategies to improve health and financial literacy may have the potential to improve public health, even in advanced age," and, noting that chronic disease seeds are sown early, that "efforts to improve health and financial literacy should not only target older persons, but also persons of younger ages." They also cite the UK Foresight Program's recommendation of better financial management training to break the debt-mental illness cycle.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Longitudinal and intervention research to establish causal pathways before interventions can be designed effectively, as the authors state more research is needed

Constraints¶

• The study is cross-sectional and cannot determine the direction of causality; the volunteer cohort may not represent the general older population

Target Learners¶

• older adults without dementia
• younger persons

Target Learning Goals¶

• health literacy
• financial literacy

Claims¶

• Financial literacy, but not health literacy, is associated with mental health indices in older adults without dementia [+W]
• Literacy is associated with functional status in older adults, but after full adjustment total literacy remains associated only with instrumental activities of daily living and mobility disability [+W]
• Higher total literacy is associated with more frequent participation in cognitive, physical, and social activities in older adults without dementia [+W]
• The association of total literacy with physical activity is not statistically significant after adjustment for income and chronic medical conditions [~W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Bennett JS, Boyle PA, James BD, Bennett DA. (2012). Correlates of health and financial literacy in older adults without dementia. BMC Geriatrics. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2318-12-30