TY - JOUR T1 - Consumer credit, chronic disease and risk behaviours JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 73 LP - 78 DO - 10.1136/jech-2018-211160 VL - 73 IS - 1 AU - Lorraine T Dean AU - Emily A Knapp AU - Sevly Snguon AU - Yusuf Ransome AU - Dima M Qato AU - Kala Visvanathan Y1 - 2019/01/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/73/1/73.abstract N2 - Background Credit scores have been identified as a marker of disease burden. This study investigated credit scores’ association with chronic diseases and health behaviours that are associated with chronic diseases.Methods This cross-sectional analysis included data on 2083 residents of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in 2015. Nine-digit ZIP code level FICO credit scores were appended to individual self-reported chronic diseases (obesity, diabetes, hypertension) and related health behaviours (smoking, exercise, and salt intake and medication adherence among those with hypertension). Models adjusted for individual-level and area-level demographics and retail pharmacy accessibility.Results Median ZIP code credit score was 665 (SD=58). In adjusted models, each 50-point increase in ZIP code credit score was significantly associated with: 8% lower chronic disease risk; 6% lower overweight/obesity risk, 19% lower diabetes risk; 9% lower hypertension risk and 14% lower smoking risk. Other health behaviours were not significantly associated. Compared with high prime credit, subprime credit score was significantly associated with a 15%–70% increased risk of chronic disease, following a dose–response pattern with a prime rating.Conclusion Lower area level credit scores may be associated with greater chronic disease prevalence but not necessarily with related health behaviours. Area-level consumer credit may make a novel contribution to identifying chronic disease patterns. ER -