It turns out that stress due to poverty is more strongly related to deterioration of health than divorce or nursing care



Life is fraught with various problems such as financial problems, divorce from a spouse, and caring for a parent, and these stresses have a negative impact not only on the mind but also on health. A new study from a British research team shows that financial stress is more strongly associated with poor health than other stressors.

Immune-neuroendocrine patterning and response to stress. A latent profile analysis in the English longitudinal study of aging - ScienceDirect

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889159123003458



Financial stress linked to worse biological health | UCL News - UCL – University College London
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/jan/financial-stress-linked-worse-biological-health

Financial Stress Could Impact Your Health More Than Grief, Study Finds : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/financial-stress-could-impact-your-health-more-than-grief-study-finds

A team of researchers from University College London and King's College London in the UK investigated how different types of chronic stress are associated with health biomarkers in older people.

The research used data on a total of 4,934 people collected from 2008 to 2012 by the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, which followed British people aged 50 and over. Participants completed an interview, completed a self-administered questionnaire, and had their biomarkers taken by a nurse. The median age of the 4,934 people in this study was 65 years.

The stressors investigated in this study were 'financial stress,' which could deplete necessary financial resources in the future, and 'caregiving stress,' which was associated with caring for an adult in private life in the past year. '', ``disability stress'' where people have difficulty with activities such as walking or squatting, ``illness stress'' where activities are limited due to a long-standing illness or health problem, and people who have experienced the death of a parent or spouse within the past two years. The six categories were ``stress of bereavement'' and ``stress of divorce'' for those who have experienced divorce within the past two years.

In addition, the risk to the subjects' health condition was determined by the four bioactivities in the blood: cortisol , a hormone produced in response to stress, CRP and fibrinogen , which are associated with the immune response to inflammation, and IGF-1, which is associated with aging and longevity. measured through markers.



The analysis found that participants who reported being under some stress were 61% more likely to be placed in a high-risk category at four-year follow-up. This result was confirmed even after excluding factors such as genetics, age, gender, lifestyle, and health status at the start of the study.

Additionally, among participants who had multiple stressors, each additional stressor increased the likelihood of being placed in a high-risk category by 19%. However, they found that those who reported only 'financial stress' were 59% more likely to be placed in a high-risk category four years later. In other words, 'financial stress' was more strongly associated with deterioration of health than other stress factors.

As for why financial stress has such a negative impact on health, lead author

Odessa Hamilton, a postdoctoral researcher at University College London, explains that financial stress affects many aspects of life. He points out that this may be because The deterioration of the economic situation not only leads to conflicts between families and social alienation, but also may eventually lead to starvation and homelessness. 'This study found that financial stress is most detrimental to biological health, but further research is needed to establish this,' Hamilton said.



The results of this study do not necessarily prove that stress directly causes long-term health problems. However, stress has a significant impact on the bodies of elderly people, suggesting that the physical effects may differ depending on the stress source.

'When the immune system and neuroendocrine system work well together, the body maintains homeostasis and stays healthy,' Hamilton said. 'However, chronic stress disrupts these biological pathways. This can lead to illness,' he explained.

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