title: Family Health Histories and Their Impact on Retirement Confidence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Retirement confidence is a key social barometer. In this article, we examine how personal and parental health histories relate to working-age adults' feelings of optimism or pessimism about their overall retirement prospects.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study links survey data on retirement planning with information on respondents' own health histories and those of their parents. The multivariate models control for the respondents' socio-demographic and economic characteristics along with past retirement planning activities when estimating the relationships between family health histories and retirement confidence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Retirement confidence is inversely related to parental history of cancer and cardiovascular disease but not to personal health history. In contrast, retirement confidence is positively associated with both parents being deceased.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As members of the public become increasingly aware of how genetics and other family factors affect intergenerational transmission of chronic diseases, it is likely that the link between family health histories and retirement confidence will intensify.
authors: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA zick@fcs.utah.edu.
authors: Cathleen D
authors: CD
authors: Zick
authors: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.
authors: Robert N
authors: RN
authors: Mayer
authors: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.
authors: Ken R
authors: KR
authors: Smith
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000235:genetics; D004644:Emotions; D005192:Family Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D010290:Parents; D012179:Retirement / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States
keywords: family health history; retirement confidence; retirement planning