ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2013
The high price of debt: household financial debt and its impact on mental and physical health.
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 120 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
120 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Relationship Between Debt and Depression, Anxiety, Stress, or Suicide Ideation in Asia: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Pooled it
- Pre-existing financial circumstance, job loss, and probable depression among U.S. adults: a prospective population-based cohort study.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2026Article
- Subjective Financial Strain and Fatalistic Beliefs about Cancer Among U.S. Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2026Article
- Money and the Mind: Financial Well-Being, Mental Health, and Loneliness in a Large Cohort of Emerging Adults.Mental health & prevention · 2026Article
- Exploring the Relationship Between Sending Remittances and Food Security in a Multi-State Survey of Dominicans in the U.S. During the Covid-19 Pandemic.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- Medical debt and subsequent use of alternative financial services among US adults.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
- A systematic review examining the relationship between debt and the mental health outcomes of anxiety, depression and suicidality within the United States.SSM - population health · 2026Review
- The 6-item InCharge financial distress/financial wellbeing (IFDFW-6) scale: Development and validation in pharmacy and epidemiology research.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- Financial Outcomes Among Medicaid Expansion Enrollees.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- A plan for black American reparations.BMJ global health · 2026Review
- From financial scarcity to risk and time preferences: the role of executive functions.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Housing Status and Health in the United States: A National Study of Homeownership, Health Outcomes, and Access to Care.American journal of public health · 2026Article
- Overindebted, unsupported and lonely, and mentally stressed and depressed-exploring the relationship between overindebtedness, social disconnectedness and poor mental health in a population-based Swiss study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Queering Studies of Health and Bodily Experience: An Example From the Transgender Resilience and Health Study.American journal of biological anthropology · 2025Article
- Debt Strain and Child Protective Services Involvement.The Social service review · 2025Article
- Economic Costs of Chronic Pain-United States, 2021.Medical care · 2025Article
- Patient healthcare spending after the No Surprises Act: quasi-experimental difference-in-differences study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- Association between Difficulty Affording Medications and Outcomes in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2025Article
- Development and validation of a prediction model for the depressive symptom risk in commercial airline pilots.The EPMA journal · 2025Article
60 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Household financial debt in America has risen dramatically in recent years. While there is evidence that debt is associated with adverse psychological health, its relationship with other health outcomes is relatively unknown. We investigate the associations of multiple indices of financial debt with psychological and general health outcomes among 8400 young adult respondents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Our findings show that reporting high financial debt relative to available assets is associated with higher perceived stress and depression, worse self-reported general health, and higher diastolic blood pressure. These associations remain significant when controlling for prior socioeconomic status, psychological and physical health, and other demographic factors. The results suggest that debt is an important socioeconomic determinant of health that should be explored further in social epidemiology research.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.