INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 06 Program Schedule 02/15/2024 04:00 pm - 05:15 pm Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60) Poster Session 06: Aging \| MCI \| Neurodegenerative Disease - PART 2 Final Abstract #24 Cognitive and Numeracy Correlates of Financial Decision-Making Tasks in Older Adults Madison Bouchard-Liporto, Boston University, Boston, United States Kriti Goyal, Boston University, Boston, United States Silvia Chapman, Columbia University, New York City, United States Stephanie Cosentino, Columbia University, New York City, United States Preeti Sunderaraman, Boston University, Boston, United States Category: Aging Keyword 1: decision-making Keyword 2: cognitive functioning Keyword 3: technology Objective: Financial decision-making (FDM) refers to an individual’s ability to efficiently handle money and financial affairs in everyday life, such as managing credit cards, making health insurance related decisions, and repaying debt. Older adults frequently engage in making key financial decisions necessary for sustaining a healthy life, including planning for retirement, choosing healthcare plans, and managing investments. It is important to investigate how different aspects of FDM are affected by potential age-related changes in numeracy (i.e., the ability to understand and work with numbers) and other cognitive abilities more broadly. Understanding these associations may facilitate prevention of financial loss among older adults, a group at risk for financial loss from scams and identity theft. The present study investigated the associations between performance on three different FDM tasks and various cognitive abilities, including numeracy, premorbid intelligence, memory, and executive functioning. Participants and Methods: Cognitively normal participants (n=81) aged 60-75 years were recruited from the community; mean age = 68.12 years (SD = 4.23), mean education = 16.74 years (SD = 2.76), 67.9% females; 85.2% White, 12.3% Black; 95.1% non-Hispanic. FDM was measured using three tasks: (i) Online Money Management (OMM) Credit Card task: This novel computerized task was developed to simulate online credit card management and generate measurements in three areas, including the ability to navigate three webpages online (Navigation), answer nine basic credit card literacy questions (Basic Literacy), and identify errors in transactions (Transaction Monitoring). (ii) Health Insurance task: This traditional economic task measures participants’ ability to select a health maintenance organization based on factors such as monthly premium, copays, family's annual healthcare costs, and out-of-pocket costs, and (iii) Debt Management task: This traditional economic task measures participants ability to manage multiple debts with varying annual percent rates. Cognitive functioning was measured using the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery, which included assessment of episodic memory (Picture Sequencing, Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT)), working memory (List Sorting), and vocabulary (Picture Vocabulary). Finally, the adaptive Berlin Numeracy test was used to assess numeracy. Pearson correlations examined the association between FDM tasks, cognition, and numeracy. Results: OMM Basic Literacy (r=.243, p=<.05) was associated with higher scores on Berlin Numeracy, the Picture Sequence task (r=.325, p=<.01) and the AVLT (r=.231, p=<.05). OMM Transaction Monitoring (r= .353, p=<.01) and performance on the Health Insurance task were only correlated with numeracy (r=.312, p=<.01). The Debt Management task was not associated with cognitive abilities or numeracy.  Conclusions: FDM tasks were most consistently associated with numeracy. Specifically, making decisions about health insurance, identifying credit card components, and detecting mistakes in transactions were all associated with numeracy. Moreover, the OMM subtask requiring knowledge about credit card components was also associated with additional cognitive abilities including episodic memory. Overall, the findings highlight that numeracy, an ability not often assessed as part of a traditional neuropsychological assessment, appears integral to FDM. Healthcare providers should consider specific assessment and routine monitoring of numeracy and FDM in evaluations geared toward older adults.

Poster

02/15/2024
04:00 pm - 05:15 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)

Poster Session 06: Aging | MCI | Neurodegenerative Disease - PART 2

Final Abstract #24

Cognitive and Numeracy Correlates of Financial Decision-Making Tasks in Older Adults

Madison Bouchard-Liporto, Boston University, Boston, United States
Kriti Goyal, Boston University, Boston, United States
Silvia Chapman, Columbia University, New York City, United States
Stephanie Cosentino, Columbia University, New York City, United States
Preeti Sunderaraman, Boston University, Boston, United States

Category: Aging

Keyword 1: decision-making
Keyword 2: cognitive functioning
Keyword 3: technology

Objective:

Financial decision-making (FDM) refers to an individual’s ability to efficiently handle money and financial affairs in everyday life, such as managing credit cards, making health insurance related decisions, and repaying debt. Older adults frequently engage in making key financial decisions necessary for sustaining a healthy life, including planning for retirement, choosing healthcare plans, and managing investments. It is important to investigate how different aspects of FDM are affected by potential age-related changes in numeracy (i.e., the ability to understand and work with numbers) and other cognitive abilities more broadly. Understanding these associations may facilitate prevention of financial loss among older adults, a group at risk for financial loss from scams and identity theft. The present study investigated the associations between performance on three different FDM tasks and various cognitive abilities, including numeracy, premorbid intelligence, memory, and executive functioning.

Participants and Methods:

Cognitively normal participants (n=81) aged 60-75 years were recruited from the community; mean age = 68.12 years (SD = 4.23), mean education = 16.74 years (SD = 2.76), 67.9% females; 85.2% White, 12.3% Black; 95.1% non-Hispanic. FDM was measured using three tasks: (i) Online Money Management (OMM) Credit Card task: This novel computerized task was developed to simulate online credit card management and generate measurements in three areas, including the ability to navigate three webpages online (Navigation), answer nine basic credit card literacy questions (Basic Literacy), and identify errors in transactions (Transaction Monitoring). (ii) Health Insurance task: This traditional economic task measures participants’ ability to select a health maintenance organization based on factors such as monthly premium, copays, family's annual healthcare costs, and out-of-pocket costs, and (iii) Debt Management task: This traditional economic task measures participants ability to manage multiple debts with varying annual percent rates. Cognitive functioning was measured using the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery, which included assessment of episodic memory (Picture Sequencing, Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT)), working memory (List Sorting), and vocabulary (Picture Vocabulary). Finally, the adaptive Berlin Numeracy test was used to assess numeracy. Pearson correlations examined the association between FDM tasks, cognition, and numeracy.

Results:

OMM Basic Literacy (r=.243, p=<.05) was associated with higher scores on Berlin Numeracy, the Picture Sequence task (r=.325, p=<.01) and the AVLT (r=.231, p=<.05). OMM Transaction Monitoring (r= .353, p=<.01) and performance on the Health Insurance task were only correlated with numeracy (r=.312, p=<.01). The Debt Management task was not associated with cognitive abilities or numeracy. 

Conclusions:

FDM tasks were most consistently associated with numeracy. Specifically, making decisions about health insurance, identifying credit card components, and detecting mistakes in transactions were all associated with numeracy. Moreover, the OMM subtask requiring knowledge about credit card components was also associated with additional cognitive abilities including episodic memory. Overall, the findings highlight that numeracy, an ability not often assessed as part of a traditional neuropsychological assessment, appears integral to FDM. Healthcare providers should consider specific assessment and routine monitoring of numeracy and FDM in evaluations geared toward older adults.