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Sequences of Chronic Heath Conditions and Financial Outcomes: Evidence from the 18 years’ data of Health and Retirement Study
Short Abstract
The objectives of this study are: 1) to identify specific types of health event sequences, 2) to estimate their impact on wealth accumulation, and 3) to differentiate between wealth accumulation across types of health event sequences.
We used the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data from 1992 to 2010. The HRS contains national longitudinal data about older Americans and has been collected every 2 years since 1992. In particular, we kept track of 5,540 respondents’ health and wealth for 18 years out of 9,763 respondents, aged 51 to 61 years, in 1992 and who turned ages 69 to 79 in 2010. We used multidimensional sequence analysis that can concomitantly articulate multiple variables with multiple dependences over time.
We identified 5 major sequences of health events for 18 years by using 8 chronic conditions. We also identified 4 major sequence clusters based on the presence of mild and severe chronic conditions. Overall net worth was different across these 4 sequence clusters. These results indicate that who has a specific sequence of health events in later years, at what age each health event occurs to mid/older Americans, and how a specific sequence affects one’s retirement savings outcomes. Our findings can provide important implications for preventive health care, retirement planning, and further studies.