Selling one's future: over-indebtedness and the risk of poor mental health and the role of precarious employment - results from the Scania Public Health Cohort, Sweden.

Over-indebtedness was related to unfavourable societal power relations, regarding social class, gender and foreign birth. Precarious employment was independently linked to poor mental health and may also mediate the effect by over-indebtedness. The COVID-19 pandemic might entail increased over-indebtedness, which should be acknowledged in policies aiming at buffering social effects of the pandemic.