Effect of EITC on Biological Markers of Aging, Health and Mortality (PaycheckPlus)

Columbia University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Poverty; Tax Policy

Treatments: Other: Paycheck Plus

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT03226548

AAAQ9663 (ADD-ON)

R01AG054466 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full 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).

Enrollment: 1,350 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: 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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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1,350 participants in 2 patient groups

Experimental

Experimental group

Description:

Paycheck Plus: Participants will receive four times the standard Earned Income Tax Credit after filing their annual taxes

Treatment:

Other: Paycheck Plus

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Control participants will receive the standard Earned Income Tax Credit after filing their annual taxes