Could Student Loan Debt Threaten Your Health?
By Amy Norton
People with lingering debt also had higher blood levels of CRP. That’s an important finding, McDade said, since it links student debt to a biological marker of chronic inflammation — though it doesn’t prove the strain of debt is the cause.
The findings were published May 3 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Other research has tied student debt to serious mental health tolls, according to J. Geiman, a policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C.
For example, a 2021 survey found that 1 in 14 high-debt student loan borrowers had ever thought about suicide due to the financial burden.
Student debt is also a matter of health equity, said Geiman, who was not involved in the new study: Black Americans, on average, take out more student loans and borrow more money, while reaping fewer rewards — with lower college graduation rates than most other racial and ethnic groups. So, they are more likely to bear the substantial downsides of borrowing.