Association of financial and health literacy with cognitive health in old age

ABSTRACT

We tested the hypothesis that higher financial and health literacy is associated with better cognitive health in 755 older persons who completed a literacy measure (M = 67.9, SD = 14.5) and then had annual clinical evaluations for a mean of 3.4 years. In proportional hazards models, higher literacy was associated with decreased risk of developing incident Alzheimer’s disease (n = 68) and results were similar for financial and health literacy subscales and after adjustment for potential confounders. In mixed-effects models, higher literacy was related to higher baseline level of cognition and reduced cognitive decline in multiple domains. Among the 602 persons without any cognitive impairment at baseline, higher literacy was associated with a reduced rate of cognitive decline and risk of developing incident mild cognitive impairment (n = 142). The results suggest that higher levels of financial and health literacy are associated with maintenance of cognitive health in old age.

KEYWORDS:

• Financial literacy
• health literacy
• cognitive decline
• Alzheimer’s disease
• mild cognitive impairment

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project for their invaluable contributions. They thank Tracy Colvin, MPH, for study coordination, and John Gibbons, MS, and Greg Klein, MS, for data management, Alysha Kett, MS, for data analysis, and the staff of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by NIH [grants R01AG33678, R01AG34374, R01AG17917] and the Illinois Department of Public Health. The funding organizations had no role in the design or conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data; or preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.