Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, UK
Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK.
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2019 Oct;73(10):977-984. doi: 10.1136/jech-2019-212154. Epub 2019 Aug 12.
In the United Kingdom and many other countries, debt accrued during higher education has increased substantially in recent decades. The prevalence of common mental health problems has also increased alongside these changes. However, it is as yet unclear whether there is an association between financial stress and mental health among higher education students.
We conducted a rapid review of the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Eligible studies were English-language publications testing the association between any indicator of financial stress and mental health among higher education students in the UK. Papers were located through a systematic search of PsychINFO, PubMed and Embase up to November 2018.
The search strategy yielded 1272 studies-9 met the inclusion criteria. A further two were identified through hand-searching. The median sample size was 408. Only three of seven studies found an association between higher debt and worse mental health. There was a consistent cross-sectional relationship between worse mental health and both experience of financial difficulties (seven of seven studies) and debt worry/financial concern (four of five studies), though longitudinal evidence was mixed and limited to six studies.
Among higher education students in the UK, there is little evidence that the amount of debt is associated with mental health. However, more subjective measures of increased financial stress were more consistently associated with worse mental health outcomes. Nevertheless, the identified evidence was judged to be weak; further research is required to examine whether links between financial stress and mental health outcomes are robust and causal in nature.
在英国和许多其他国家，近几十年来，高等教育期间产生的债务大幅增加。与此同时，常见心理健康问题的患病率也有所上升。然而，目前尚不清楚高等教育学生的财务压力与心理健康之间是否存在关联。
我们对同行评议的科学文献进行了快速审查。合格的研究是在英国进行的，这些研究检验了任何财务压力指标与高等教育学生心理健康之间的关联。通过对 PsychINFO、PubMed 和 Embase 的系统搜索，在 2018 年 11 月之前找到了这些论文。
搜索策略产生了 1272 项研究，其中 9 项符合纳入标准。通过手动搜索又发现了另外两项。中位样本量为 408。只有三项研究发现债务越高与心理健康越差之间存在关联。在七项研究中有七项发现，更糟糕的心理健康状况与经济困难的经历（七项研究中有七项）和债务担忧/财务担忧（五项研究中有四项）之间存在一致的横断面关系，尽管纵向证据存在分歧且仅限于六项研究。
在英国的高等教育学生中，几乎没有证据表明债务数额与心理健康有关。然而，更多的财务压力的主观衡量指标与更糟糕的心理健康结果更一致相关。尽管如此，所确定的证据被认为是薄弱的；需要进一步研究，以检查财务压力与心理健康结果之间的联系是否具有稳健性和因果关系。
