Fragile health and fragile wealth: Mortgage strain among African American homeowners

Keene, Danya E.; Lynch, Julia; Baker, Amy Castro

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.07.063

Cited by 31 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Building on much of the literature on debt and health, we have assumed that being in debt creates a psychosocial or financial environment that leads to poor health, but reverse causation is another and not mutually-exclusive possibility. Medical expenses are a leading cause of indebtedness ( Cutshaw et al, 2016 , Garcia and Rukavina, 2010 , Houle and Keene, 2015 , Keene et al, 2014 ), and existing medical conditions and health problems could certainly precede and/or precipitate short-term debt accrual. Indeed a recent study found that mounting medical bills are associated with increased payday lending ( Bickham & Lim, 2015 ), while Medicaid expansion in California has been associated with significant decreases in payday borrowing ( Allen, Swanson, Wang, & Gross, 2017 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term lending: Payday loans as risk factors for anxiety, inflammation and poor health

Sweet

Kuzawa

McDade

2018

SSM - Population Health

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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.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term lending: Payday loans as risk factors for anxiety, inflammation and poor health

Sweet

Kuzawa

McDade

2018

SSM - Population Health

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“…Among the 174 study participants interviewed by Pollack and Lynch [ 29 ], most identified unemployment as the primary precipitant of foreclosure, but struggling to pay for costs associated with illness or hospitalization was the third most commonly named reason for foreclosure. In the two qualitative studies by Keene and colleagues [ 30 ], and Fields and colleagues [ 31 ] and Libman and colleagues [ 32 ], a common theme that emerged from the focus groups and in-depth interviews was a context of ongoing economic strain and vulnerability in which medical illness could trigger a cascade of troubles ultimately leading to foreclosure.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Home Foreclosure, Health, and Mental Health: A Systematic Review of Individual, Aggregate, and Contextual Associations

Tsai

2015

PLoS ONE

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BackgroundThe U.S. foreclosure crisis intensified markedly during the Great Recession of 2007-09, and currently an estimated five percent of U.S. residential properties are more than 90 days past due or in the process of foreclosure. Yet there has been no systematic assessment of the effects of foreclosure on health and mental health.Methods and FindingsI applied systematic search terms to PubMed and PsycINFO to identify quantitative or qualitative studies about the relationship between home foreclosure and health or mental health. After screening the titles and abstracts of 930 publications and reviewing the full text of 76 articles, dissertations, and other reports, I identified 42 publications representing 35 unique studies about foreclosure, health, and mental health. The majority of studies (32 [91%]) concluded that foreclosure had adverse effects on health or mental health, while three studies yielded null or mixed findings. Only two studies examined the extent to which foreclosure may have disproportionate impacts on ethnic or racial minority populations.ConclusionsHome foreclosure adversely affects health and mental health through channels operating at multiple levels: at the individual level, the stress of personally experiencing foreclosure was associated with worsened mental health and adverse health behaviors, which were in turn linked to poorer health status; at the community level, increasing degradation of the neighborhood environment had indirect, cross-level adverse effects on health and mental health. Early intervention may be able to prevent acute economic shocks from eventually developing into the chronic stress of foreclosure, with all of the attendant benefits this implies for health and mental health status. Programs designed to encourage early return of foreclosed properties back into productive use may have similar health and mental health benefits.

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“…Recent studies suggest that the experience of default and foreclosure3 7–10 and living in high-foreclosure areas11–13 can lead to poor health outcomes. However, much less research has considered whether poor health may increase default and foreclosure risk 6 14 15…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While this is a small study (N=128) with a low response rate (7%) it is suggestive of a potential relationship between poor health and foreclosure. Furthermore, findings from qualitative studies suggest that illness strains fragile household budgets and produces mortgage trouble, particularly when it leads to declines in income 15 22…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting sick and falling behind: health and the risk of mortgage default and home foreclosure

Houle

Keene

2014

J Epidemiol Community Health

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Fragile health and fragile wealth: Mortgage strain among African American homeowners

Cited by 31 publications

References 23 publications

Short-term lending: Payday loans as risk factors for anxiety, inflammation and poor health

Short-term lending: Payday loans as risk factors for anxiety, inflammation and poor health

Home Foreclosure, Health, and Mental Health: A Systematic Review of Individual, Aggregate, and Contextual Associations

Getting sick and falling behind: health and the risk of mortgage default and home foreclosure

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