DUPRI’s Angela O’Rand and Jenifer Hamil-Luker, Duke Sociology, explore “Cohort Differences in the Relationship Between Debt and Risk of Heart Attack,” in forthcoming Demography publication

 DUPRI’s Angela O’Rand and Jenifer Hamil-Luker, Duke Sociology, explore “Cohort Differences in the Relationship Between Debt and Risk of Heart Attack,” in forthcoming Demography publication

DUPRI’s Angela O’Rand and co-author Jenifer Hamil-Luker, Duke Sociology, analyze  of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) between 1992 and 2014 to  compare the relationship between different levels and forms of debt and heart attack risk trajectories across four cohorts in Demography. O’Rand and Hamil-Luker find that although all cohorts experienced growing household debt, including the increase of both secured and unsecured debt, they nevertheless encountered different economic opportunity structures and crises at sensitive times in their life courses, with implications for heart attack risk trajectories.  Further, results from frailty hazards models reveal that unsecured debt is associated with increased risk of heart attack across all cohorts. Higher levels of housing debt, however, predict higher rates of heart attack among only the earlier cohorts. Heart attack risk trajectories for Baby Boomers with high levels of housing debt are lower than those of same-aged peers with no housing debt. Thus, authors find that  the relationship between debt and heart attack varies by level and form of debt across cohorts but distinguishes Baby Boomer cohorts based on their diverse exposures to volatile housing market conditions over the sensitive household formation period of the life course.