Credit card debt can also hurt your health

Carrying credit card debt isn’t just bad for your budget. It may also affect your health.

The stress of carrying card debt through adulthood is linked to poor health, including joint pain or stiffness that interferes with daily activities, a recent study from the University of Missouri found. Beyond the worries about repaying debt, one reason for poor health may be that people with high debt have little money left to pay for resources that protect their health, the study said.

The findings come at a time of increased financial insecurity for many Americans as a result of the pandemic, though the study noted that the level of unsecured debt — like credit cards, payday loans or medical bills — has been rising more quickly than income over the past several decades.

The new research tapped Department of Labor data to analyze the financial health of almost 7,900 baby boomers over more than a decade, from age 28 to 40, as well as their physical health at age 50. It found that people who carried consistently high levels of unsecured debt were 76% more likely to have pain that interfered with their daily life than people with no unsecured debt.

People who carried debt over time reported worse physical health late in life, said Adrianne Frech, a medical sociologist and associate professor at the university’s School of Health Professions who is the study’s lead author.

And the effects lingered even if the debt had been repaid, she said. People who had paid down their debt over time were still 50% more likely to have pain that impeded regular activities.

The study builds on earlier research that found that unsecured debt is more burdensome than other kinds of debt because it has higher interest rates and is often borrowed during times of desperation.

“Unsecured debt is stressful to repay,” Frech said.

Poor health and high debt can feed a cycle that’s hard to break, she said. People take on debt, and the stress affects their health, which, in turn, may limit their ability to work and pay off the high-interest debt. Simply telling people to manage their money better isn’t enough, Frech said.

“We must address the systemic inequalities that create these desperate circumstances in the first place,” she said.

The study period predates the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic-induced economic downturn. It didn’t include student debt, which many borrowers are having trouble repaying well into their 30s and 40s.

After growing for years, credit card debt fell in early 2020, as Americans cut back on spending and paid down balances during the pandemic.

The average credit card balance was $5,525 this year, down from about $6,500 in 2019, according to credit bureau Experian.

Yet while card balances remained $140 billion lower in the middle of this year than at the end of 2019, they began ticking upward in the second quarter of this year, rising $17 billion above the first quarter, according to the New York Federal Reserve.

Some indicators suggest household debt is becoming a concern for some consumers. The share of people rating their debt-to-income ratio “very unhealthy” doubled in the third quarter, to 16% from 8%, according to the American Consumer Credit Counseling Financial Health Index.