Associations of Medical Debt With Health Status, Premature Death, and Mortality in the US.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Medical debt is increasingly common in the US. Little is known regarding its association with population health.

Objective

To examine the associations of medical debt with health status, premature death, and mortality at the county level in the US.

Design, setting, and participants

This cross-sectional study was conducted at the US county level using 2018 medical debt data from the Urban Institute Debt in America project linked with 2018 data on self-reported health status and premature death from the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps and with 2015 to 2019 mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Data analysis was performed from August 2022 to May 2023.

Exposure

Share of population with any medical debt in collections and median

SUBMITTER: Han X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10912961 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature