Effect of Financial Strain on Mortality in Community-Dwelling Older Women
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: Although it is well established that low socioeconomic status is related to mortality, little research has focused on whether financial strain predicts mortality. Still less research has examined this question by race, despite the evidence that African Americans suffer earlier mortality and more financial strain at the same levels of socioeconomic status than their Caucasian counterparts. We examined the extent to which financial strain was associated with increased mortality risk in older women and whether the relationship differed by race. METHODS: The sample was the Women's Health and Aging Studies I and II of community-dwelling older women aged 70 to 79. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the effect of financial strain on 5-year mortality rates. RESULTS: Women who reported financial strain were almost 60% more likely to die within 5 years independent of race, age, education, absolute income, health insurance status, and comorbidities (p <.001) than their counterparts who did not. Although race was not a predictor of mortality, the association between financial strain and mortality was stronger for African Americans than for Caucasians (p <.01). DISCUSSION: For older women, financial strain may be a better predictor of mortality than annual income, particularly in the case of older African American women.
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Perceived financial strain predicts increased mortality independent of education and income.
“In HRS, perceived financial strain predicted earlier disability (Matthews et al., 2005) and increased mortality independent of education and income (Szanton et al., 2008).”
From More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science (2018) · cites this paper as Szanton et al., 2008
The Results report that financial strain predicted higher five-year mortality among older women after adjustment for education and income. However, the Methods identify the sample as the Women’s Health and Aging Studies I and II, not HRS, so the sentence’s HRS setting is not supported for this mortality finding. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science
Epel, E. S., Crosswell, A. D., Mayer, S. E., Prather, A. A., Slavich, G. M., Puterman, E., & Mendes, W. B. (2018) · Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.03.001 · Cited by 1,077 · see citing works
“…Financial strain Earlier disability; mortality (independent of education and income) Women’s Health and Aging Study (WHAS) Matthews et al. (2005), Szanton et al. (2008) Interpersonal stress Social isolation Increased morbidity; physical and mental health; functional status English…”
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Lichtenberg, P. A., Stickney, L., & Paulson, D. (2013) · Clinical Gerontologist · doi:10.1080/07317115.2012.749323 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
“Financial satisfaction is broadly related to physical and mental health in late life, while chronic financial strain is associated with increased mental and physical health problems and higher mortality (Lantz, House, Mero, & Williams, 2005; Szanton et al., 2008).”
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Szanton, S. L., Allen, J. K., Thorpe, R. J., Seeman, T., Bandeen-Roche, K., & Fried, L. P.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Szanton, S. L.
- Venue
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2008-11-01
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- S369-S374
- ISSN
- 1079-5014 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-5368
- PMC
- PMC2874583
- OpenAlex
- W2149916726
- Cited by
- 125
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 4.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- John A. Hartford Foundation
- Johns Hopkins University
- National Institutes of Health (1f31nr009470-01)
- National Institute on Aging (1R37AG1990502, R01 AG11703, 1P50AG021334-01, R01AG011703, P30AG021334)
- National Institute of Nursing Research (1F31NR009470-01, F31 NR009470, T32NR007968, 1 T32 NR07968-01)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
- Keywords
- financial stress, mortality, older women, socioeconomic status, racial differences, African American women, community-dwelling older adults, income, health insurance, Women's Health and Aging Study
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Black or African American, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Maryland, Mortality, Poverty, Baltimore, Multivariate Analysis, Proportional Hazards Models, Women's Health, White People, Health Status Disparities
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