ReviewAJPM focus2025
Financial Strain and Child Health: Measures and Evidence From a Systematic Literature Review.
Review in AJPM focus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Perceived Financial Strain and Adolescent Mental Health: Evidence from a Population-Based Study in South Tyrol, Italy.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Estimating the catastrophic and impoverishing health expenditure risk among malnourished under-five children in Uganda: secondary analysis of national panel data.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Despite the focus on pediatric social needs, there is a dearth of research on financial strain, which is characterized by challenges in meeting basic needs. This study systematically reviewed the literature on different measures of self-reported financial strain and health outcomes. Methods: A systematic literature search in PubMed, PsychINFO, and Web of Science identified papers that examined relationships between self-reported financial strain and health outcomes among U.S. children or adolescents. Two blinded reviewers screened each paper (65 papers, 39 studies) and extracted data. Financial strain measures were coded for content. Findings were synthesized based on age and type of measure. Results: Financial strain measures asked about the lack of money for basic needs (32 studies), difficulty making ends meet (23 studies), relying on coping strategies (13 studies), experiencing stress or worry about finances (4 studies) anticipating future strain (4 studies), and the lack of money for leisure (4 studies). Financial strain was associated with poorer health and well-being and more behavior challenges among children of all ages, poorer academic performance among school-age children, and more depressive symptoms among adolescents. Associations were consistent across diverse samples when accounting for other socioeconomic factors and across financial strain measures, including a single item about difficulty making ends meet. Fourteen studies tested hypothesized mechanistic factors that explain associations, including material, psychosocial, and behavioral pathways. Discussion: The consistency of associations between financial strain and pediatric health and well-being highlights an urgent need to address financial strain to advance health equity. Results show predictive validity for a simple financial strain question, similar to one recommended by the National Academy of Medicine.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.