Losing savings affects life expectancy
Money-related stress can affect health to the point of compromising longevity.
It’s always said that “money can’t buy happiness,” but it seems to have a close relationship with health.
It is not surprising, because we have all experienced that economic problems can affect our quality of life, not only because of the lack of money needed to meet some of our obligations, but also because of the uncertainty, anxiety and the stress that this situation entails.
Over the years, several studies have investigated the relationship between personal wealth and health. In general, richer or better-positioned people tend to live longer than people with less wealth, but the reasons for this are complex.
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.
The most recent study to investigate the impact of money on health set out to explore whether loss of savings could also affect longevity. The paper, published in the journal JAMA, found that over a 20-year period, more than a quarter of middle-aged and older people in the United States experienced “negative results” in the face of a “wealth shock”.
The impact of the negative balance
The shock of negative wealth 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 (from 2007 to early 2010), this figure was persistent in all types of economic periods.
The team took data from the Health and Retirement Study, designed by the National Institute on Aging. Data collection began in 1992 and assessed 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 researchers also measured health outcomes for individuals with asset or poor poverty, defined by the study authors as “zero or negative total net value when entering the study”.
The findings paint a not-so-pleasant picture: “We found that losing a lifetime’s savings has a profound effect on a person’s long-term health,” explains Lindsay Pool, the study’s leader. In fact, people who experienced negative wealth impact were 50% more likely to die over the next 20 years compared to those who didn’t have that misfortune.
Carlos Mendes de León, co-author of the study, commented: “Our findings offer new evidence of a potentially important social determinant of health that has not been recognized until now: the sudden loss of wealth in midlife or later in life.”
When looking at those with asset poverty, the image was equally obscure; their mortality risk in 20 years increased by 67%. This finding was no surprise. However, as Pool points out, “the most surprising finding was that having wealth and losing it was almost as bad for life expectancy as never having had wealth.”
To explain why these people are more at risk of dying earlier, the researchers felt that considering the results of thousands of people were analyzed, causation is difficult to pin down, and there is unlikely to be a simple answer for all; but the study authors believe there are likely to be two key themes: “These people suffer a worsening of mental health due to financial loss, as well as withdrawal from medical care because they cannot afford it.”
This study was the first to observe the relationship between the shock of negative wealth and life expectancy. According to experts, doctors need to be aware of their patients’ financial circumstances. “It’s something you have to ask to understand if your patients may have a higher health risk,” Pool.
