UAB team develops financial capacity test
A team of UAB doctors has developed a 25-minute test that physicians can use to determine the competence of dementia patients to handle financial affairs.
The test, described as the first designed specifically to evaluate financial capabilities, was introduced Wednesday by Dr. Daniel C. Marson at the 2006 International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders in Madrid, Spain.
Marson, a University of Alabama at Birmingham neuropsychologist with a law degree, led the team of five doctors who examined the financial skills of a study group in developing the test.
“Impairment and eventual loss of financial abilities are an important and often devastating consequence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia,” Marson said. “As the disease progresses, patients lose arithmetic and other basic money management skills, and the ability to make both complex and simple financial decisions.