In 2010, Drs. Sarah Szanton, Roland Thorpe, Jr., and Keith Whitfield published an article entitled “Life-course financial strain and health in African-Americans.” This scholarly publication revealed the results of a study that explored how exposure to financial strain across one’s life-course contributes to differences in population health. The objective of the study was to examine the associations between childhood, adulthood, and life-course financial strain with disability, lung function, cognition, and depression among African-Americans. The results of the study found that life-course financial strain is significantly associated with depression, cognition, and disability in adult African Americans. Of specific interest, the study found that participants with financial strain in both childhood and adulthood were more depressed than those who experienced financial strain exclusively in their childhood or in their adulthood.
