|
E-mail this page to a friend!
As Many Seniors Know: Money doesn't buy happiness -
- except when disability strikes
Study finds financial 'buffer' appears to help
preserve well-being after health setbacks
 April
6, 2005 As many senior citizens have learned, the old saying that
money doesn't buy happiness' may hold true most of the time, but when a
serious health problem comes along, financial resources may really
cushion the blow to a person's psyche.
A new study by researchers at the University of
Michigan Health System and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System stands in
contrast to previous research that showed no major differences in
self-reported happiness and well-being between wealthy people and those
with modest financial assets.
Instead, the study finds that people with
relatively large financial assets before they became disabled reported
substantially better well-being, and less sadness and loneliness, after
they were disabled than was reported by people with fewer financial
resources who also became disabled.
Although the difference eased a few years after
disability set in, the researchers say the finding has important
implications for such things as personal savings, retirement planning
and "safety net" government programs for the seriously ill and disabled.
The study will be published in an upcoming issue of
Psychological Science, the flagship journal of the American
Psychological Society. It's based on an analysis of data from 478 older
Americans who were interviewed regularly and in depth for as long as
nine years, before and after they suffered a health problem that left
them disabled. The data are from the Health and Retirement Study,
conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research with funding from the
National Institute on Aging.
"Happiness and well-being may not depend on a
person's financial state in times of health, but when that health fails,
as it will eventually for most of us, money matters," says senior author
Peter Ubel, M.D., a U-M professor of internal medicine and psychology,
and a staff physician at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.
"Money may not buy happiness, but it does seem to
buy people out of some of the misery that's associated with a decline in
health status," says lead author Dylan Smith, Ph.D., a research
specialist at the VA Health Services Research & Development Center and a
U-M psychologist and internal medicine research investigator.
Ubel directs, and Smith is a member of, the U-M
Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine. They note that
research has already shown that psychological well-being, or lack of it,
can affect people's response to medical treatment, and their ability to
work or care for themselves and their family. Other research has shown
that half of personal bankruptcies are linked to health care costs. The
federal bankruptcy reforms now under consideration in Congress do not
exempt medical costs.
For the new study, the researchers focused on the
data from the 478 HRS study participants who became disabled during the
years when they were surveyed regularly, starting in 1992, and
continuing until 2000. Participants were classified as disabled if they
became unable to carry out routine tasks of daily living such as
walking, getting out of bed, eating and dressing without help.
The researchers then divided the participants into
two income groups: those with financial assets above the median level,
and those below the median. Assets in the HRS are measured by adding
together home equity, savings, stocks, bonds and other assets, and
subtracting debts. The median net worth in the study was $98,400, and
311 of the participants had assets below that level.
The researchers then looked at how the participants
had rated their overall psychological well-being on a standardized
survey, focusing on happiness, enjoyment of life, sadness and
loneliness. They looked at how that self-reported well-being changed
over time, from pre-disability to post-disability.
The analysis showed that those whose financial
assets had been above the median before they were disabled suffered a
much smaller drop in self-reported well-being than those who had been
below the median. A second analysis confirmed that there was a
relationship between a person's net worth and the drop in their
well-being after disability.
The researchers looked at data from a sub-group of
people who had well-being data on record from several years after they
suffered their disability. Although the researchers did not assess,
again, whether the disability was still present, or whether it had
lessened, they did find that the well-being of those with lower net
worth had improved somewhat. The well-being of those with more financial
means had actually decreased slightly.
In all, Ubel says, the results should help
individuals and policy makers understand the importance of financial
security in relationship to a person's health and well-being. Since
disability of some form or another strikes a large percentage of
Americans, and increases as people grow older, the issue will only
become more important as the baby boom generation ages.
"Our study suggests that it is better to save for a
rainy day, than to spend your savings on a house where it doesn't rain,"
he says.
Ubel and Smith also note that their study does not
demonstrate directly that having more money and more assets shields a
person from a psychological downfall when disability strikes. There
could be some psychological factors associated with a person's ability
to accumulate wealth that could also make them more resilient when they
become disabled.
But in all, they say, the research is the first
time that financial assets have shown to be a possible buffer for a
person's well-being after a decline in health.
In addition to Ubel and Smith, the study team
included U-M biostatistician and research associate Mohammed Kabeto,
M.S., and Kenneth Langa, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of general
medicine at the U-M Medical School, a research investigator at the Ann
Arbor VA, and a faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research.
The study was funded by the National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development. The Health and Retirement Study is
funded by the National Institute on Aging. Smith is supported by a VA
career development award, Ubel by a Presidential Early Career Award for
Scientists and Engineers, and Langa by an NIA Career Development Award
and a Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar Award.
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
