More Than 45 Million Americans Are Paying Down Student Loans
As the cost of college has increased, students and their families have taken on more debt to get to and stay in college, says the study’s lead author, Adam M. Lippert, PhD, a professor and researcher in the department of sociology at the University of Colorado in Denver. “Student debt has exploded in the country, with over 45 million Americans paying down educational loans,” says Dr. Lippert. About 70 percent of students who receive a four-year degree have education debt when they graduate, according to the Urban Institute. These loans tie up money that could be used on investments or to purchase a home, adds Lippert. Previous research has shown that in the short term, student debt burdens are associated with self-reported health and mental health concerns, according to the authors. “We thought student debt might also have implications for cardiovascular health — and our results suggest it does,” says Lippert.
How Student Debt Impacts Heart Health and Stress
To perform the study, investigators used data obtained from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a panel study of 20,745 adolescents and teens in grades 7 to 12 who were first interviewed during the 1994–1995 school year. Four more “waves” of data were collected over a period of more than 20 years; in the last wave, participants were invited to in-home medical exams. Researchers then assessed biological measures of cardiovascular health of the 4,193 remaining qualifying subjects using the 30-year Framingham cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk score, which considers sex, age, blood pressure, antihypertensive treatment, smoking status, diabetes diagnosis, and body mass index to measure the likelihood of a cardiovascular disease over the next 30 years of life. They also looked at levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker of chronic or systemic inflammation. The investigators classified people who had taken out student loans according to the following: never had student debt, paid off student debt, took on student debt between waves, and consistently in debt. To try to isolate the health impact of the student loans, models were adjusted for respondent household and family characteristics including education, income, sex, age, and other demographic information. The researchers found that 37 percent of the participants did not report student debt in either wave, 12 percent had paid off their loans, 28 percent took on student debt, and 24 percent consistently had debt. Key findings included:
The individuals who consistently had debt or took on debt had higher cardiovascular risk scores than those who had never been in debt and those who paid off their debt.Participants who took on new debt or were consistently in debt between young adulthood and early midlife had clinically significant CRP value estimates that were higher than their counterparts who never had debt or paid it off.The people who paid off debt had significantly lower CVD risk scores than those who never took out a student loan; this suggests that relieving the burden of student debt could improve population health, according to the authors.Race and ethnicity had no impact on the results.
Supplemental analyses suggested that, on balance, a college degree provides health benefits even to those with student debt, according to the authors. Lippert points out that the subjects in this study went to college at a time when student debt averaged around $25,000 for four-year college graduates, a figure that’s risen substantially since this data was collected. “Unless something is done to reduce the costs of going to college and forgive outstanding debts, the health consequences of climbing student loan debt are likely to grow,” he says.
Some Types of Loans May Tax Our Health More
Other types of debt may also negatively impact health, says Lippert. “Past research shows that credit card debt is also harmful to one’s mental and physical health,” he says. Interestingly, mortgage debt does not appear to have the same influence, because it may constitute a ‘necessary debt’ among borrowers to facilitate wealth accumulation, he explains.
Financial Burdens Such as Student Loans May Lead to Stress and Chronic Inflammation
“Financial burdens like student loan debt are stressors that tax the body in many ways, which includes chronic inflammation and potentially behavioral responses to cope with stress,” says Lippert. “If the past three years have taught us anything, not all of our behavioral coping mechanisms are healthy ones, but our research does not clarify the extent to which health behaviors explain our findings,” he says.
Loan Relief Could Improve Cardiovascular Risk in Some Individuals
In the near term, loan relief would lower stress and cardiovascular risk for those with student debt, says Lippert. “In the long run, we need to rethink how we finance institutions of higher education where the future labor force is trained. The Great Recession left a dent in financial support for universities from states, but returning to pre-recession funding levels would help ensure a supply of workers free of debt and prepared for the jobs of tomorrow,” he says. Unlike other developed societies, the United States leaves young adults on their own to pay for college, says Lippert. “Our research only demonstrates the health penalties of this arrangement, but it does raise a question about what we value as a society; if we limit college access to only those who can pay for tuition without loans, we are effectively declaring that the education of lower-income folks is unimportant,” he says.
