Effect of EITC on Biological Markers of Aging, Health and Mortality

NCT03226548 — Not applicable, Completed, 1350 participants, Columbia University

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An Experimental Investigation Into the Impact of Socioeconomic Context on Biological Markers of Aging, Health and Mortality

Registry	NCT03226548, acronym PaycheckPlus
Status	Completed
Phase	Not applicable
Study type	Interventional; randomized, parallel, masking: single, prevention
Enrollment	1350 (Actual)
Sponsor	Columbia University (Other); collaborators: MDRC, National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Conditions	Poverty, Tax Policy
Interventions	Paycheck Plus (Other)
Dates	start 2016-12-20, primary completion 2021-12-31, completion 2021-12-31, first posted 2017-07-21, last updated 2022-04-06
Locations	1 site in United States

-Summary

Paycheck Plus (PP) is a randomized controlled experiment (RCT) that explores the health and longevity effects associated with increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). EITC is a national program that provides tax credits to low-income, disproportionately minority workers who file taxes. EITC is politically popular, having received bipartisan support. The EITC, along with state supplemental programs, have 7 million American families out of poverty. The investigators' preliminary data analyses show that the EITC has had large population health impacts, reversing declines in self rated health and survival among the poorest Americans.

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+Detailed description

Poverty disproportionately impacts minority and rural populations and is very strongly correlated with poor health over the life cycle, and has been hypothesized to lead to a shorter, less healthy aging process. Poverty is associated with a greater burden of disease than smoking and obesity combined and accounts for the bulk of health disparities by race. It is widely believed that an antipoverty policy, such as Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), could improve healthy aging among working-age low-income adults over the life cycle. It does so by increasing material hardship and psychological stress, two risk factors that are strongly correlated with biological markers of premature aging (e.g., shorter telomeres, higher cholesterol levels, and higher blood pressure).

+Arms and interventions

Arm	Type	Interventions	Description
Experimental	Experimental	Other: Paycheck Plus	Paycheck Plus: Participants will receive four times the standard Earned Income Tax Credit after filing their annual taxes
Control	No intervention		Control participants will receive the standard Earned Income Tax Credit after filing their annual taxes

Paycheck Plus (Other): A four-fold increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit

+Outcome measures

Primary outcomes

Mean Score on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) [4 Years]: Depression will be measured using the subject's score on the PHQ-9.
EuroQol 5D5L [4 years]: Health-related quality of life

Secondary outcomes

Mean Body Mass Index (BMI) [2 Years]: A measure of obesity
Telomere length [4 years]: Telomere length is a measure of biological age
Mortality [4 years]: We will link records to National Death Index for future study

+Eligibility

Sex: All, ages: 18 Years to 65 Years, accepts healthy volunteers

Inclusion Criteria:

1. a US resident
2. Filed taxes
3. Earned <$30,000 in the previous year
4. Aged 21-64
5. Have a Social Security number

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Eligible for Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance
2. Married
3. Have dependent children

+Locations (1)

Facility	City	Country	Status
Westat	Atlanta, Georgia	United States

+Investigators

Peter Muennig, MD, Principal investigator, Columbia University

+Funding

NIH grants: R01AG054466

My Notes

Public

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