Methodology for analysis of the American Health and Retirement Study
The Times/KFF Health News data analysis was based on the Health and pension study, a nationally representative longitudinal survey of approximately 20,000 people over the age of 50. The analysis defined that people aged 65 and older are likely to need long-term care if they were diagnosed with dementia, or if they reported having problems with two or more of six activities of daily living. The six activities are bathing, dressing, eating, getting in and out of bed, walking around a room and going to the toilet. The Langa-Weir classification of cognitive function, a related data set, was used to identify respondents with dementia. The analysis’s definition of needing long-term care assistance is conservative and consistent with the criteria most long-term care insurers use when determining whether they will pay for services.
People were described as recipients of long-term care assistance if they reported receiving assistance in the month before the survey interview or if they lived in a nursing home. The analysis was prepared in consultation with Norma Coeassociate professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
The financial toll on middle-class and upper-income people needing long-term care was examined by reviewing data the HRS collected between 2000 and 2021 on wealthy Americans, those whose net worth at age 65 was in the 50th to 95th percentile , totaling somewhere between $171,365 and $1,827,765 in inflation-adjusted 2020 dollars. This group excludes the super-rich. Each individual’s wealth at age 65 was compared with his wealth just before he or she died to calculate the percentage of wealthy people who had exhausted their financial resources and the likelihood that this would occur among different groups.
To calculate how many people were likely to need long-term care, how many people who needed long-term care received it and who provided care to people who received help, we looked at people aged 65 and over from all levels of wealth in the Netherlands. the 2020-2021 survey, the most recent.
The American Health and Retirement Study is conducted by the University of Michigan and funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration.
The analysis was conducted by Albert Sun, a graphics editor for The Times, and Holly K. Hacker, a data editor for KFF Health News, part of the organization formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation.