NPR aired this story by Sarah Boden about the relationship between risky financial behavior and dementia. It consists of Boden interviewing people caring for individuals with dementia and dementia researchers. Before the NPR story, Boden published a related piece to a Pittsburgh NPR station. The Pittsburgh piece is a more formal report with many links to helpful information.
Among the research Boden describes is this study by Nicholas et al. (2020), which finds that people exhibit poor financial decision-making up to six years before a dementia diagnosis. Here is a press release about the study, in case you want to give more advanced students a primer or earlier UG students a sheet for understanding the research.
The audio version of this story is very compelling. It includes interviews with several people who have been left heavily in debt because of poor decisions made by family members before their diagnosis. It also offers some solutions that could be implemented by financial companies.
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| https://www.npr.org/2023/01/30/1152448758/an-older-persons-money-management-errors-may-be-a-sign-of-some-sort-of-dementia |
This story and research would be a great addition to MANY different psychology classes...developmental, neuro, aging...but also RM/stats. Specifically, you could use this study to:
1) Discuss how we operationalize a variable.
Sure, there are plenty of scales for measuring impulse control. But the behavioral measure via credit score can look at risky behaviors that lower a person's credit score.
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| https://www.npr.org/2023/01/30/1152448758/an-older-persons-money-management-errors-may-be-a-sign-of-some-sort-of-dementia |
2) The third variable problem.
The third variable is the underlying brain degradation that causes dementia and increased risk behaviors.
3) Good science reporting
Noteworthy because of all of the bad science reporting. Boden's work and the press release from Johns Hopkins are good examples of how to share science with the masses.
4) Prediction
Have a discussion with your students about how credit scores and financial behaviors could eventually be used to predict dementia.
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