TY - JOUR T1 - Effect of mortgage indebtedness on health of U.S. homeowners JF - Review of Economics of the Household Y1 - 2017 A1 - Leigh Ann Leung A1 - Lau, Catherine KW - Debt KW - Economics KW - Health Conditions and Status KW - Housing KW - Mortgages KW - Older Adults AB - This paper examines the effect of excessive mortgage indebtedness on health among homeowners using nine waves of the Health and Retirement Study from 1992 to 2008. Health status is measured by subjective well-being, number of depressive symptoms, and incidence of hypertension. Using average annual state-level home prices as an instrument, we attempt to identify the causal effect in an panel IV framework. Results from the panel IV estimations suggest that having a high mortgage loan to home value (LTV), defined as LTV at or above 80 %, leads to more depressive symptoms and a higher incidence of hypertension, but has no effect on subjective well-being. Since the results from panel estimations did not show that debt affects health, whether the panel IV results demonstrate a causal relationship depends critically on the exclusion assumption. VL - 15 IS - 1 JO - Rev Econ Household ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Diabetes diagnosis and exercise initiation among older Americans JF - Preventive Medicine Y1 - 2014 A1 - Leigh Ann Leung A1 - Shailender Swaminathan A1 - Amal Trivedi KW - Demographics KW - Health Conditions and Status KW - Healthcare AB - Objective: To determine whether exercise participation increased following a new diagnosis of diabetes using a sample of U.S. individuals aged 50 and over who did not report exercise prior to diagnosis. Methods: We used data from the 2004-2010 Health and Retirement Study in a pre-post study design. Individuals newly-diagnosed with diabetes (N. = 635) were propensity score matched to a comparison group with no diabetes. Results: In the year following a reported diagnosis, 35.7 (95 confidence interval 32.0 to 39.5) of those newly diagnosed with diabetes initiated exercise as compared with 31.4 (95 confidence interval 27.9 to 35.1) for the matched cohort with no diabetes, with a between-group difference of 4.3 percentage points (95 confidence interval -0.9 to 9.4). Among individuals with fewer health risk factors at baseline, the between-group difference was 15.6 percentage points (95 confidence interval 1.58 to 29.5). Conclusion: Over 35 of persons with a new diagnosis of diabetes initiated moderate or vigorous exercise in the year following their diagnosis. Among individuals with fewer health risk factors at baseline, those newly-diagnosed with diabetes were more likely to begin exercise than those without diabetes. 2014 Elsevier Inc. PB - 65 VL - 65 UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84901829825andpartnerID=40andmd5=4961de60a077ce36676e9d5c53632ed9 N1 - Export Date: 6 August 2014 U4 - Diagnosis/Exercise/Health behavior/Physician counseling/Tertiary prevention/Type 2 diabetes/diabetes mellitus/low risk population ER -