ArticleJAMA network open2026
Housing Instability Following Medical Debt Exposure Among US Adults, 2023 to 2025.
Article in JAMA network open, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Housing Instability Associated With Cost-Related Nonadherence and Financial Toxicity in People With Uncontrolled Diabetes.Diabetes care · 2026Trial
- Medical Debt and Advanced Cancer Stage at Diagnosis.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Medical debt and subsequent use of alternative financial services among US adults.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Importance: Medical debt may place patients at heightened risk of housing instability as a result of increased financial strain or extraordinary collection actions. Objective: To estimate the association of medical debt with housing instability in the subsequent year. Design, Setting, and Participants: Cohort study in the US from 2023 to 2025 including adults participating in the Cumulative Life Stressors Impact on Mental Health and Well Being Study, a nationally representative, longitudinal panel. Exposures: Past-year medical debt self-reported in 2024. Main Outcomes and Measures: Past-year housing instability (ie, difficulty paying rent or mortgage, eviction, or foreclosure) self-reported in 2025. Propensity score weighting was used to account for differences between adults with and without medical debt, using data from the year before medical debt (2023). Survey weights were used to account for complex survey design. Results: Among 1515 adults (mean [SD] age, 52.2 [16.2] years; 739 [49.7%] female; 138 [11.5%] Black, 203 [15.1%] Latine, and 1082 [65.0%] non-Hispanic White), 240 (16.4%) reported medical debt in 2024. The unadjusted prevalence of subsequent housing instability was markedly higher among adults with medical debt, compared with those without medical debt (23.5%; 95% CI, 18.2%-29.9% vs 5.8%; 95% CI, 3.6%-9.4%). Using doubly robust estimation to adjust for confounders, medical debt was associated with an increase of 7.0 (95% CI, 5.2-8.8) percentage points in the probability of housing instability in the subsequent year. Conclusions and Relevance: This cohort study found that any medical debt was associated with a significant increase in housing instability in the following year. Inquiry into efforts to prevent and mitigate the potential consequences of medical debt, including housing instability, are warranted.
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Registered trials
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