Financial hardship has hit health harder than the grief of loss
A new study has shown that stress over money affects more than just a person's psyche. It can lead to long-term changes in key health indicators related to the immune, nervous and hormonal systems.
College (both in the UK), their work is the first analysis of its kind to look at the relationship between different types of chronic stress and markers of health in older adults. The results were published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
The study was based on data from the ELSA (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing) project, which is dedicated to the study of aging. Researchers followed nearly 5,000 male and female participants in this program for four years (from 2008 to 2012), who were on average 65 years old.
The researchers looked at six of the most common factors that cause stress and disrupt homeostasis. These included tension over finances, caring for another person, disability, bereavement, illness and divorce.
Using test results from the program, health professionals created risk profiles based on four blood indicators. These included the hormone cortisol, produced in response to stress, C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen, considered markers of inflammation in the body, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which plays a role in the aging process and is linked to longevity. This resulted in three groups: low, medium, and high risk for immune and neuroendocrine profiles.
Participants who reported stressors were 61 percent more likely to be in the high-risk group after four years than in the other two groups. And money stress had the strongest effect on a person's likelihood of being in the high-risk group, increasing the odds by nearly 60 percent. With each additional stressor, the probability increased by 19 percent.
The correlation found persisted after adjusting for genetic and socioeconomic variables, as well as age, gender and lifestyle.
"We found that financial stress is most detrimental to health, although more research is needed to state this for sure. This is likely because this type of stress hits many aspects of our lives, leading to family conflict, social alienation, and sometimes even hunger or homelessness," said epidemiologist Odessa Hamilton, one of the study's authors, in a statement.
Acute stress triggers a cascade of hormonal changes in the body that lead to increased breathing, blood pressure and heart rate. The immune system also responds by producing more cytokines - pro-inflammatory molecules.
Thus, increased stress levels can trigger chronic activation of the immune system, which can exacerbate physical and mental illnesses