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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Jul 22.
Published in final edited form as: Med Decis Making. 2013 Jul 3;34(1):107–115. doi: 10.1177/0272989X13493144

Table 2.

Numeracy questions asked in 2002 Health and Retirement Study

Core numeracy questions: administered to all respondents
1. If the chance of getting a disease is 10 percent, how many people out of 1,000 would be expected to get the disease?
2. If 5 people all have the winning numbers in the lottery and the prize is two million dollars, how much will each of them get?
3. Let’s say you have $200 in a savings account. The account earns ten percent interest per year. How much would you have in the account at the end of two?
Experimental module numeracy questions:
Respondents receive only one version (math, market, or medicine) of each question
Item: Math domain Financial domain Health domain
1. What is 15% of 1,000? A store is offering a 15% off sale on all TVs. The most popular television is normally priced at $1,000. How much money would a customer save on the television during this sale? A pill cures 15% of people who have a disease. If 1000 people have the disease and they all take the pill, how many people will be cured?
2. The number 10 is what percent of 1,000? If a customer saved $10 off a $1,000 chair, what percent would the customer have saved off the original price? If the chance of getting a disease is 10 in 1,000, what percent of people will get the disease?
3. Which of the following percentages is the biggest:
One percent, ten percent, or five percent?		 Which of the following percentages represents the biggest discount in a sale: One percent, ten percent, or five percent? Which of the following percentages represents the biggest risk of getting a disease: One percent, ten percent, or five percent?
4. Which of the following is the most likely to happen: something that happens 1 in 100 times, something that happens 1 in 1000 times, or something that happens 1 in 10 times? Which of the following represents the biggest chance of winning a lottery: a 1 in 100 chance, a 1 in 1000 chance, or a 1 in 10 chance? Which of the following represents the biggest risk of getting a disease: a 1 in 100 risk, a 1 in 1000 risk, or a 1 in 10 risk?