Organizers of financial literacy programs could learn important lessons from the broad approach that public health officials take to spreading health literacy, researchers have told the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Researchers at the American Institutes for Research, Silver Spring, Md., prepared the financial literacy and health literacy study for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The researchers based their findings on a review of literature and interviews with experts.
Many of the financial literacy programs reviewed by the researchers involved face-to-face counseling, and health literacy officials could learn from that approach, the researchers say.
"Although expensive, this form of communication can be beneficial when consumers must decipher complex information–for example, regarding intricate public benefits programs, such as Medicaid, or confusing financial products, such as reverse mortgages — as part of their decision making," the researchers say.
The researchers say financial literacy program managers could learn from health educators efforts to reach all kinds of people at all ages.
"Early and ongoing education can build and strengthen knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of young people as they progress to adulthood and engage in health and financial decision making," the researchers say. "For example, using the Stages of Change Theory it may be beneficial to begin discussing savings and retirement with teenagers and young adults even though this subpopulation may not be considering long term savings or retirement (i.e., precontemplation). However, it may help to move this population from precontemplation to contemplating savings and retirement."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture originally aimed a Financial Security Plan retirement planning program aimed at older adults, but it expanded the program to include all age groups once it recognized that adulthood might be too late to achieve the best financial-planning outcomes, the researchers say.
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