NEWS
2025.05.27
【Report】 The 79th AJI Frontier Seminar was held! Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuyet presented “Household Debt and Their Impact on Mental Health among Older Adults: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study in Vietnam.”
The 79th AJI Frontier Seminar was held online on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuyet, a researcher at Iafor Research Centre, Osaka University, Japan, gave a presentation on “Household Debt and Their Impact on Mental Health among Older Adults: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study in Vietnam.”
Dr. Nguyen began by explaining the current significance of population aging and mental health issues as birth rates decline and the elderly live longer. Vietnam in particular has one of the lowest birthrates and highest elderly populations in Asia. Meanwhile, the size of outstanding household debt has doubled to 46% of the gross national debt from 2013 to 2020 and the average share of people reporting mental health issues has increased dramatically from 11% in 2019 to 41% in 2022. She cited several papers that have established a connection between increased household financial debt and increased risks of depression in countries like China, the US, Sweden and the UK, and stated her objective to investigate the effects of household debt on mental health in Vietnam and explore the mechanisms underlying these effects.
Dr. Nguyen used data from National Aging surveys conducted in 12 provinces in Vietnam in 2019 and 2022. Her sample consisted of 2,893 observations with 1,446 unique individuals. To quantify depression, she employed the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15). Employing a regression model supported by robustness checks using alternative estimation methods and depression indicators, she concluded that Household Debt is significantly associated with an increase in depression symptoms. It is most pronounced among older people living in rural areas with insufficient income for their daily needs, inability to afford health care, and lack of satisfaction with their living conditions.
Her paper is the first study in Vietnam and low- and middle-income countries to examine the effect of household debt on the mental health and the large and nationally representative sample size allows for relatively precise estimates across multiple subgroups of interest.
After Dr. Nguyen’s presentation there were questions; some were related to the variables in her calculations, and others to dealing with the outcomes. Significantly increased foreign investment in manufacturing and rapid urban development has caused a growing disparity between highly educated and uneducated, wealthy urban and poor rural communities. Dr. Ngyuyen concluded her interesting lecture by explaining that the Vietnamese government has started addressing the issues that she highlighted and has recently introduced health care schemes and assistance for low-income families to improve the situation.
Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuyet delivering her presentation
Please visit the following link for previous AJI Frontier Seminars:
https://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/aji/young_researcher/seminar/archive/