PhD ceremony D.F. (Dorien) Bangma, MSc. Can we afford this? The capability to make financial decisions in individuals with and without cognitive impairment.

In order to make (clinical) decisions about the financial decision-making (FDM) capability (i.e., the ability to manage or direct the management of one’s finances) of an individual, the assessment of FDM should be conducted carefully and comprehensively. For this, new FDM tests and questionnaires have been developed. The aim of the current thesis is to systematically and comprehensively study the FDM capability of individuals with and without cognitive dysfunctions. The thesis focuses on the effects of normal aging on FDM capability and explores the FDM capability of individuals with neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) and adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In summary, evidence has been found that patients with NDDs and adults with ADHD are more likely to show FDM-capability problems than healthy individuals. The severity of cognitive impairment seems to be related to the degree of problems with FDM in these patients. Numeracy was most consistently found as significant predictor of aspects of FDM capability. Furthermore, evidence has been found that processing speed, working memory and verbal memory are positively related to the ability to make (adequate) financial decisions. Besides cognition, several contextual factors, such as age, level of education or personality, seem to play a role and relate to aspects of the FDM capability of an individual in a negative (or positive) way. The FDM test battery showed adequate divergent validity and reliability. More research is, however, needed in order to increase the predictive value of the FDM tests and questionnaires.

Dissertation: http://hdl.handle.net/(...)00-a7b0-0bc8a9e42803