Poverty, Debt Lead To Early Death In The U.S., Studies Say

Key Takeaways

• People in poverty and growing debt increased a person’s risk of dying early

• The more years spent in poverty and the more debt accumulated, the higher a person’s risk of premature death

• Inadequate social and medical supports aren’t helping people who struggle financially 

THURSDAY, Nov. 13, 2025 (HealthDay News) — 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, according to two studies published in the November issue of The Lancet Public Health.

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.

Both studies used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, a study tracking people born in the United States between 1957 and 1964.

The first study found that of more than 5,600 participants, 8% were always in poverty; 33% often in poverty; another 33% sometimes in poverty; and 26% were never impoverished over a 20-year follow-up.

Those who were always in poverty had a 2.5 times greater risk of premature death, compared to a 53% increased risk for those often in poverty and 10% for those sometimes in poverty, results showed.

The second study looked at data for nearly 7,000 participants regarding their unsecured debt — credit card or student loan debt not tied to any asset.

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“This category of debt carries higher interest rates and does not contribute to wealth accumulation,” said Zeki Al Hazzouri, who was involved in both studies. “It may be more stressful and burdensome than other types of debt and signal additional resource constraints. So, it is particularly important to study as a social determinant of health.”

Results showed that people whose unsecured debt increased over time had an 89% greater risk of premature death, compared to those whose debt remained consistently low.

This dose-response relationship between poverty, indebtedness and death “might, in part, explain why poverty seems more damaging to health in the USA than in other nations with similar poverty rates,” a pair of CUNY-Hunter College professors, Dr. David Himmelstein and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

“Individuals in the lowest wealth quintiles are far less likely to transition to a higher income quartile in the USA than in other wealthy nations,” they wrote. “Meanwhile, the insufficient social and medical support available in the USA for low-income individuals amplify the damage of poverty.”

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more on poverty and health.

SOURCES: Columbia University, news release, Nov. 10, 2025; The Lancet Public Health, November 2025

What This Means For You

Financial counseling and policies to prevent predatory lending might help a person’s health.