Researchers explore how people’s relationship with money impacts their health

A major study into the possibility micro loans could offer people with low incomes to improve their health has been announced by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU.)

The ‘Fair credit, health and well-being’ project will explore the perceived link between improved income and its resulting health benefits for people, by giving small loans to people with limited incomes.

A £210,000 grant from the Chief Scientist Office (CSO), part of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, has been provided to fund the research that will take place in Glasgow, a city chosen because of its relatively high deprivation rates, extreme inequalities and availability of financial services for low-income groups.

The project will give impoverished people, who might lack steady employment or have an unverified credit history, microcredit in the form of a small loan to boost their financial situation. Researchers will measure how financial support impacts on their overall well-being, community engagement and measure any improvements to their health.

Professor Donaldson, a member of the team conducting the research, said: “With health inequalities widening and becoming more entrenched in parts of our society, it is important to think of and evaluate new and more holistic ways of addressing this major societal challenge.

Money has a role in this. It is very rare to explore people’s relationships with money and even less so how fair credit might actually impact on their shorter and longer-term well-being. GCU’s Yunus Centre is proud to be at the forefront of this area of research.”

Mircocredit in the form of small loans has been used before in developing countries to promote entrepreneurship, empower woman and alleviate poverty and is believed to have originated from the Grameen Bank founded in Bangladesh.

The project will be carried out by experts from Newcastle University, Sheffield University, the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, Glasgow City Council and the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service,led by Professor Cam Donaldson, chair of the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health that was established in 2010 to explore the link between social business and health improvement.