People with a mood disorder are more likely to have medical debt That debt can prevent them from getting the care they need Those with medical debt are twice as likely to delay or forego care for their mood disorder MONDAY, July 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Medical debt is significantly more common among people with a mood disorder, and these money woes can keep them from getting the help they need, a new study says. Among people with depression or anxiety, those with medical debt were twice as likely to delay or forego mental health care as those who were debt-free, results show. “The prevalence of medical debt in the U.
S. is already quite high, and the prevalence was significantly higher among adults with depression and anxiety,” said lead researcher Kyle Moon , a doctoral student in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School’s Department of Mental Health in Baltimore. “On the flip side, a relatively high number of adults with no medical debt also report delaying or forgoing mental health care, and medical debt appears to compound the problem,” Moon added in a Hopkins news release.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 27,600 participants in an annual federal survey on health. About 27% of adults with depression and 26% with anxiety have medical debt going back 12 months, compared with about 9% of those who don't have either mood disorder, results show. Consumer credit report data shows that medical debt is the biggest contributor to personal debt, resea.