Do financial hardships affect health? A study among older adults in Switzerland

Résumé 0

Background: A growing number of studies have underlined the relationship between socioeconomic status andhealth. Following that literature, we explore the causal effect of financial hardships on changes in health at olderages. Rather than traditional measures of socioeconomic variables, we study the role of financial hardships. Thedeclarative measurement of financial hardships is particularly relevant for assessing the impact of short-termfinancial difficulties on health among older adults. Methods: In this study, we use data from the Lausanne cohort65þ. Participants are community-dwelling older adults representative of the population aged 65–70 years in 2004and living in Lausanne (Switzerland) (n ¼ 1352). We use longitudinal annual data with 11 years of follow-up(2006–16) to estimate dynamic panel models on several indicators measuring older adults’ health (self-ratedhealth, number of medical conditions, depressive symptoms, difficulties with daily living activities). Results: Wefind evidence of causal effects of financial hardships on self-rated health (coef. ¼ 0.059, P < 0.10) and on depres-sive symptoms (coef.¼0.060, P < 0.05). On the other hand, we find no evidence of causality running from financialhardships to the number of medical conditions and the difficulties in daily living activities. Conclusion: Theseresults make a contribution to the literature where nearly all previous research on associations between financialhardship and health does not establish causal relationships. Our results support the need to integrate healthpolicies that mitigate the potential adverse health effects of financial hardship for older adults.