Abstract
IntroductionSocial and economic conditions are powerful determinants of women’s health status. Microcredit, which involves the provision of small loans to low-income women in the hopes of improving their living conditions, is an increasingly popular intervention to improve women’s socioeconomic status. Studies examining the health effects of microcredit programs have had mixed results.MethodsWe conduct a cross-sectional study among female clients of a non-profit microcredit program in Peru (N = 1,593). The predictor variable is length of microcredit participation. We conduct bivariate and multivariate linear regressions to examine the associations between length of microcredit participation and a variety of measures of women’s health. We control for participants’ sociodemographic characteristics.ResultsWe find that longer participation is associated with decreased depressive symptoms, increased social support, and increased perceived control, but these differences are attenuated with the inclusion of covariates. We find no association between length of participation and contraception use, cancer screening, or self-reported days sick.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate a positive association between length of microcredit participation and measures of women’s psychological health, but not physical health. These findings contribute to the discussion on the potential of microcredit programs to address the socioeconomic determinants of health, and suggest that addressing socioeconomic status may be a key way to improve women’s health worldwide.
Highlights
Social and economic conditions are powerful determinants of women’s health status
As prior studies have found differences in health effects of microcredit programs by client gender [28, 30], and because in this study we are interested in pathways that are specific to female clients, only female participants were included (N = 1,593)
The average score for perceived depressive symptoms was 18.2, which is above the cut-off of 16 at which individuals are considered to be at increased risk of depression in the United States
Summary
Microcredit, which involves the provision of small loans to low-income women in the hopes of improving their living conditions, is an increasingly popular intervention to improve women’s socioeconomic status. One increasing popular tool to achieve these aims is microcredit [4]. Increased economic independence for women may enable them to be more active in decisionmaking around finances and health, thereby increasing their relative status within the household [7]. This may especially be true in microcredit programs in which
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