Household non-mortgage debt and depression in older adults in 22 countries: what is the role of social norms, institutions and macroeconomic conditions?

Is the association between debt and feeling of depression so fundamental that it occurs across time and place? Are some countries better at mitigating the depression related to debt than others? This paper addresses these questions by taking advantage of three harmonised longitudinal surveys, consisting of older adults in 21 European countries and the US. A series of logistic regression models show that, net of differences in other socioeconomic variables, people with household non-mortgage debt have higher odds of depression, measured using dichotomised versions of depressive symptom scores, in all countries. These associations are in many countries as strong as the association between low education level and depression. The association is particularly strong in countries with poor debt discharge legislation or low levels of indebtedness, both of which may be regarded as indicators of stigma related to debts. Overtime the association between debt and depression seems to be elevated within countries when the unemployment rate increases. These findings demonstrate how the links between debt and mental health are embedded in its institutional and economic contexts.