Financial Literacy and Exercise Behavior in the United States

Abstract

Lack of exercise is an important public health issue in the United States due to its link to obesity and other health risk factors. Despite several policy interventions, many Americans do not exercise sufficiently. Given recent findings that financial literacy helps to improve people’s rational decision-making ability and encourages people to exercise in Japan, we conduct a similar study for the United States, which has also been experiencing lack of exercise but has a different cultural setting. Culture has important influences on decision making and exercise behavior. This study investigates whether financial literacy is associated with exercise behavior in the United States. We used Osaka University’s 2010 Preference Parameters Study dataset and performed a probit regression analysis to test our hypothesis that financially literate people are likely to exercise more. In support of our hypothesis, we find that Americans with better financial literacy are more likely to exercise at least once a week. Additionally, financial education has a similar association with exercise behavior. Our results suggest that authorities could consider using financial literacy as an alternative policy intervention to promote regular exercise among the American population.

Financial Literacy, Financial Education, and Cancer Screening Behavior: Evidence from Japan

“…Third, our measurement of financial literacy was restricted to three questions, while financial education was assessed using only one question. While alternative measurements of financial literacy and financial education are available, a large body of related studies adopted the same methodology as that used in our study [8][9][10].…”

“…These questions measure respondents' ability to understand the implications of interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification. Similar to studies that used the same questions [9,10,[35][36][37][38][39], we adopted 1 as the score for every correct answer and 0 for an incorrect answer and averaged scores of the total 3 responses to obtain data measuring financial literacy levels.…”

“…We consider that the lack of participation in preventive cancer screening can be explained from the perspective of an irrational choice framework and offer a solution based on rational decision-making abilities using previous studies that associated financial literacy and financial education with rational health behavior [8][9][10]. Following Grossman's health capital model [11,12], preventive cancer screening could be conceived as an investment in health capital, as one in every six deaths is caused by cancer [13].…”

“…Being able to understand the value of health capital, financially literate people are likely to overcome cognitive limitations and become motivated for preventive cancer screening. Previous studies also provide evidence that financial literacy aids people in making rational choices about savings, finance, and investment [18,19], planning for retirement [20][21][22][23], and health behavior [8][9][10]24]. Furthermore, financial literacy is associated with an improved cognitive performance and aids time-consistent decisions about current and future outcomes [25].…”

Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Financial Capability and Health in Later Life: Evidence From Hong Kong

“…In this vein, financial capability is considered a determinant of health because financial capability represents an individual’s ability and opportunities to act ( Sun & Chen, 2022 ). People with higher levels of financial capability—having greater access to financial services and products, being equipped with improved financial knowledge and skills, or demonstrating responsible financial behavior—may be better able to manage financial stress and avoid material hardships ( Sun & Chen, 2022 ), increase health care investment such as acquiring health products and services ( Ling et al, 2023 ), and adopt healthy behaviors such as less smoking ( Khan et al, 2021 ) or more frequent exercise ( Yuktadatta et al, 2021 ). Sun and Chen’s (2022) study confirms the links between financial capability and health, showing that financial capability has a positive and longitudinal effect on health, independent of other critical social determinants such as race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status.…”