Financial scarcity undermines health across the globe and the life course

Abstract

The gradient between income and health is well established: the lower the income, the poorer the health. However, low income (having few economic resources) may not be enough to characterize economic vulnerability, and financial scarcity (perceiving having insufficient economic resources) may further reduce health. First, analysis of cross-national data (275,000+ participants from 200+ country-years) revealed that financial scarcity was associated with twice the odds of suffering from reduced self-rated health and feelings of unhappiness; this association was observed in ≈90% of the country-years and explained variance over and above income. Second, analysis of national longitudinal data (20,000+ participants over 20 years of assessment) revealed that facing financial scarcity in the course of one's life decreased self-rated and objective health and increased feelings of depression; again, these effects explained variance over and above income. Two subsidiary findings were obtained: (i) three adverse life events (illness, separation, family conflicts) predicted financial scarcity over the life course, and (ii) self-mastery (a component of sense of control) accounted for the detrimental longitudinal effects of financial scarcity on health. This research suggests that to understand socioeconomic inequality in health, one should consider not only an individual's quantity of monetary resources but also the perceived sufficiency of these resources.