For the first time, a team of researchers from Northwestern Medicine in Illinois and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (USA) has shown that losing personal wealth can significantly increase the risk of death.
Over the years, several studies have investigated the relationship between personal wealth and health. In general, richer people tend to live longer than people with fewer possibilities, but the reasons for this are complex.
The most recent study to investigate the impact of money on health set out to explore whether losing money could also affect longevity.
The work, published in JAMA magazine, found that over a 20-year period, more than a quarter of middle-aged and older people in the United States experienced “negative outcomes” from a “wealth shock.”
The impact of the negative balance
Negative wealth shock was defined as the loss of 75% of an individual’s personal wealth over the course of 2 years. Although losses soared during the Great Recession (2007 to early 2010), this figure was persistent in all types of economic climate.
The researchers also measured health outcomes for poor or asset-poor individuals, defined by the study authors as “zero or negative total net worth at study entry.”
The team took data from the Health and Retirement Study , designed by the National Institute on Aging. Data collection began in 1992 and they evaluated a representative group of citizens comprising more than 8,700 adults, who were 50 years of age or older, with a review every 2 years.
The findings make for grim reading: “We found that losing a lifetime’s savings has a profound effect on a person’s long-term health ,” says study leader Lindsay Pool.
In fact, people who experienced a negative wealth shock were 50% more likely to die in the next 20 years compared to those who did not.
“Our findings offer new evidence for a potentially important social determinant of health that has not been recognized until now: the sudden loss of wealth in late middle age or old age,” says Carlos Mendes de León, co-author of the study.
When looking at those with asset poverty, the picture was just as dark; their risk of mortality in 20 years increased by 67%. This find was not a surprise. However, as Pool emphasizes, “the most surprising finding was that having wealth and losing it was almost as bad for life expectancy as never having had wealth.”
Why are these people more likely to die?
Considering that the results of thousands of people were analyzed, causality is difficult to pin down, and it is unlikely that there will be a simple answer for all, but the study authors believe that there are likely two key themes: “These people suffer an aggravation of mental health due to financial loss, as well as withdrawal from medical care because they cannot afford it. “
According to experts, physicians need to be aware of the financial circumstances of their patients. “It is something they must ask to understand if their patients may have a greater health risk,” Pool says.
The study is the first to look at the relationship between negative wealth shock and life expectancy.
Referencia: Association of a Negative Wealth Shock With All-Cause Mortality in Middle-aged and Older Adults in the United States. Lindsay R. Pool,; Sarah A. Burgard; Belinda L. Needham. JAMA. 2018;319(13):1341-1350. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.2055
