TY - JOUR
T1 - Student loans and psychological distress
T2 - A cross-sectional study of young adults in Japan
AU - Sato, Yukihiro
AU - Watt, Richard G.
AU - Saijo, Yasuaki
AU - Yoshioka, Eiji
AU - Osaka, Ken
N1 - Funding Information:
Types of student financial support None Student loans (n = 1,826, 62.2%) (n = 994, 33.8%)
Funding Information:
Types of student financial support None Student loans (n = 548, 59.3%) (n = 325, 35.2%)
Funding Information:
Types of student financial support
Funding Information:
CI, confidence interval; PR, prevalence ratio. aSevere psychological distress was assessed by the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale by a cut-off point at 12=13. bModel 1: Age and sex were adjusted. cModel 2: Model 1 + educational attainment, sources of the enrolled university, father’s educational attainment, mother’s educational attainment, and current parents’ annual household income were adjusted. The single imputation was conducted using types of student financial support, amounts of student loan debt, current student status, age, sex, educational attainment, sources of the enrolled university, father’s educational attainment, mother’s educational attainment, current parents’ annual household income, and the K6 score by the the k-nearest neighbor algorithm from the R package named “DMwR.”
Funding Information:
β, non-standardized coefficient; CI, confidence interval. aPsychological distress was assessed by the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. bModel 1: Age and sex were adjusted. cModel 2: Model 1 + educational attainment, sources of the enrolled university, father’s educational attainment, mother’s educational attainment, and current parents’ annual household income were adjusted. The single imputation was conducted using types of student financial support, amounts of student loan debt, current student status, age, sex, educational attainment, sources of the enrolled university, father’s educational attainment, mother’s educational attainment, current parents’ annual household income, and the K6 score by the the k-nearest neighbor algorithm from the R package named “DMwR.”
Funding Information:
Funding: This study was supported by the Grant of Tohoku University Division for Interdisciplinary Advanced Research and Education. Conflicts of interest: None declared.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Yukihiro Sato et al.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Background: Levels of student loan debt have been increasing, but very little research has assessed if this is associated with poor health. The aim was to examine the association between student loans and psychological distress in Japan. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional web-based self-administered questionnaire survey in 2017. The sample comprised of 4,149 respondents aged 20–34, with 3,170 graduates and 979 current university students. The independent variables were whether or not current students had student loans, and for graduates, the total amount of their student loan debt. The dependent variable was severe psychological distress assessed using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6; the cut-off point was 12/13). Covariates were demographic and parents’ socioeconomic variables. A Poisson regression analysis with a robust error variance was conducted to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Because there was a significant interaction between current student status and the status of borrowing student loans, stratified analyses were conducted. Results: The percentage of those with student loans was 33.8% among graduates and 35.2% among current university students. Among graduates, student loan debt was significantly associated with a high possibility of having severe psychological distress after adjusting for covariates (PR of ≥4 million yen, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.02–2.03). Among current university students, there was no significant association (PR of borrowing student loans, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.60–1.37). Conclusions: There was a significant association between student loan debt and psychological distress among graduates but not current university students.
AB - Background: Levels of student loan debt have been increasing, but very little research has assessed if this is associated with poor health. The aim was to examine the association between student loans and psychological distress in Japan. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional web-based self-administered questionnaire survey in 2017. The sample comprised of 4,149 respondents aged 20–34, with 3,170 graduates and 979 current university students. The independent variables were whether or not current students had student loans, and for graduates, the total amount of their student loan debt. The dependent variable was severe psychological distress assessed using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6; the cut-off point was 12/13). Covariates were demographic and parents’ socioeconomic variables. A Poisson regression analysis with a robust error variance was conducted to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Because there was a significant interaction between current student status and the status of borrowing student loans, stratified analyses were conducted. Results: The percentage of those with student loans was 33.8% among graduates and 35.2% among current university students. Among graduates, student loan debt was significantly associated with a high possibility of having severe psychological distress after adjusting for covariates (PR of ≥4 million yen, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.02–2.03). Among current university students, there was no significant association (PR of borrowing student loans, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.60–1.37). Conclusions: There was a significant association between student loan debt and psychological distress among graduates but not current university students.
KW - Mental health
KW - Student health
KW - Student loans
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U2 - 10.2188/jea.JE20190057
DO - 10.2188/jea.JE20190057
M3 - Article
C2 - 31474676
AN - SCOPUS:85083974308
VL - 30
SP - 436
EP - 441
JO - Journal of Epidemiology
JF - Journal of Epidemiology
SN - 0917-5040
IS - 10
ER -
