TY - JOUR
T1 - Short-term lending
T2 - Payday loans as risk factors for anxiety, inflammation and poor health
AU - Sweet, Elizabeth
AU - Kuzawa, Christopher W.
AU - McDade, Thomas W.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health , National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (Grant # R01-MD00723 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Authors
PY - 2018/8
Y1 - 2018/8
N2 - While research now consistently links consumer financial debt with adverse emotional health outcomes, specific forms of debt and their impact on measures of physical health are underexplored. This gap in knowledge is significant because different forms of loans and debt may have different experiential qualities. In this paper, we focus on a type of unsecured debt - short-term/payday loan borrowing – that has risen dramatically in recent decades in the United States and is characterized by predatory, discriminatory, and poorly regulated lending practices. Using data from a study of debt and health among adults in Boston, MA (n=286), we test whether short-term borrowing is associated with a range of emotional and physical health indicators. We find that short-term loans are associated with higher body mass index, waist circumference, C-reactive protein levels, and self-reported symptoms of physical health, sexual health, and anxiety, after controlling for several socio-demographic covariates. We discuss these findings within the contexts of regulatory shortcomings, psychosocial stress, and racial and economic credit disparities. We suggest that within the broader context of financial debt and health, short-term loans should be considered a specific risk to population health.
AB - While research now consistently links consumer financial debt with adverse emotional health outcomes, specific forms of debt and their impact on measures of physical health are underexplored. This gap in knowledge is significant because different forms of loans and debt may have different experiential qualities. In this paper, we focus on a type of unsecured debt - short-term/payday loan borrowing – that has risen dramatically in recent decades in the United States and is characterized by predatory, discriminatory, and poorly regulated lending practices. Using data from a study of debt and health among adults in Boston, MA (n=286), we test whether short-term borrowing is associated with a range of emotional and physical health indicators. We find that short-term loans are associated with higher body mass index, waist circumference, C-reactive protein levels, and self-reported symptoms of physical health, sexual health, and anxiety, after controlling for several socio-demographic covariates. We discuss these findings within the contexts of regulatory shortcomings, psychosocial stress, and racial and economic credit disparities. We suggest that within the broader context of financial debt and health, short-term loans should be considered a specific risk to population health.
KW - Biomarkers
KW - Debt
KW - Predatory lending
KW - Social determinants of health
KW - short-term loans
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.05.009
DO - 10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.05.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 29922711
AN - SCOPUS:85048456862
VL - 5
SP - 114
EP - 121
JO - SSM - Population Health
JF - SSM - Population Health
SN - 2352-8273
ER -