Poll Finds Americans Are Suffering from Debt Stress

The Associated Press-AOL Health poll released results today, which indicate that more Americans are coping with the stress from increasing debt. Paul J. Lavrakas, a research psychologist and AP consultant said that Americans are, “suffering terribly due to their debts, and their health is likely to be negatively impacted”.  He analyzed the results of the poll and says 10 million to 16 million reported high levels of debt stress and suffered from at least three stress related illnesses. Current research supports the link of chronic stress to a wide variety of aliments.

Current economic times and increasing costs of living are causing Americans high levels of debt stress according to an index linked to the AP-AOL survey, which indicates that rates have increased 14 percent from 2004. They have compared rates between people who were suffering from high stress debt to those who had a low level of stress debt.

27 percent had ulcers or digestive problems, compared with 8 percent of those with low level of debt stress
44 percent had migraines or headaches, compared with 15 percent
29 percent suffered severe anxiety, compared with 4 percent
23 percent had severe depression, compared with 4 percent
6 percent reported heart attacks, double the rate for people with low debt stress
51 percent had muscle tension including back pain, compared with 31 percent.

Medical research indicates that the symptoms reported in the poll were typical of chronic stress. When the body reacts to stress it causes a “fight-or-flight response, which releases adrenaline and the stress hormone called cortisol. It helps you react fast in an emergency, but if the body stays at this level for an extended period of time, it can wreak physical havoc in many systems. Possible causes are increased blood pressure and heart rate, memory problems, mood swings and a weakened immune system.

As a tough economy worsens, Americans are taking on more debt due to job losses, soaring energy and food prices, slumping home values, and a record number of home foreclosures. Revolving debt is almost all from credit cards, which now totals $957 billion compared with $800 billion in 2004 and car loans are up to $27,397 compared with 24,888. It was also determined that middle-class families had the most debt stress, along with women, couples with small children, low income working families, Democrats and those who haven’t gone to college. The Americans that were least likely to be stressed were men, retirees, empty nesters, Republicans and college graduates.  The AP-AOL poll involved 1,002 adults from all states except Alaska and Hawaii. It was conducted from March 24^th to April 3^rd and the study was done by Abt SRBI Inc.