Table 1.

Selected evidence on relationship between debt and mental health

Author (year) country	Findings	Sample
Housing debt
Taylor, Pevalin and Todd (2007) UK8	This well-designed study reported that housing arrears negatively impacted on mental health among men (if arrears occurred in the last year), and among women (if arrears were long term)	Study design: time series – 13 waves; 8185 (5651 male heads of households, 2534 female heads of households)
Brown et al (2005) UK9	This well-designed study reports a statistically significant relationship between housing debt and mental well-being. However, the effect size (i.e. impact) is small	Study design: time-series – two waves, 2193 heads of households with data in both the 1995 and 2000 surveys
Consumer debt
Brown et al (2004) UK9	This well-designed study reports a statistically significant relationship between debt and mental well-being. However, the effect size (i.e. impact) is small	Study design: time series – two waves, 2193 heads of households with data in both the 1995 and 2000 surveys
Drentea (2000) USA10	This study found that while having credit card debt did not affect anxiety levels, the amount of surrounding stress (debt stress) could be used to predict levels of anxiety	Study design: cross-sectional – 1037 respondents in Ohio (over-sampling in areas with more black residents)
Mixed debt
Skapinakis et al (2006)UK11	This well-designed study found debt was significantly associated with major depression, but is limited by data only being collected at two points in time	Study design: time-series – two waves, general adult population (n = 2406)
Jenkins et al (2008) UK12	People on low incomes are known to be more likely to have a mental disorder. This study, however, provides plausible evidence that debt and socio-demographic factors may actually strongly mediate the relationship between low income and mental disorder	Study design: cross-sectional – general adult population (n = 8580)