2 Studies Link Poverty, Debt to Early Death for Americans

Poverty and indebtedness increase a person's risk of dying young, a pair of new studies say.

People with poverty-level family income or increasing debt levels during early adulthood have higher odds of premature death, two studies published in the November issue of The Lancet Public Health suggest.

Further, the more time spent in poverty or with increasing levels of debt, the higher the risk of early death, results showed.

"Greater cumulative exposure to poverty across emerging and established adulthood is associated with a greater risk for premature mortality," senior researcher Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri, an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, said in a news release. [MORE]