Financial unhealthiness predicts worse health outcomes: evidence from a sample of working Canadians

- This article defines financial health as an indicator of the proportionality of household consumption to its income.
- For a sample of working Canadians, financial unhealthiness is found to predict worse physical and mental health outcomes.
- No evidence of a gender difference is found in the association of this metric with health outcomes.

ObjectiveThis paper investigates how financial health associates with self-rated health, for a sample of working Canadians. Financial health is defined as an indicator of the proportionality of household consumption to its income.Study designThe study draws on the Canadian General Social Survey of 2011, a cross-sectional data set.MethodsMultivariate regression analysis is employed.ResultsThe results show that financial unhealthiness is a statistically significant and strong predictor of worse physical and mental health outcomes, controlling for a wide array of characteristics, including income and job security implied by occupational category.ConclusionPolicy implications are explored.