Though school debt consistently exceeded income for healthcare occupations — except for physicians — between 2017 and 2022, dentists had the highest debt-to-income ratios. The study was published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.
If rising education loan debt is not addressed, it may affect postgraduate training and career choices for students, specifically those from underrepresented populations, which could also hurt access to dental and other medical care, the authors wrote.
“We call upon health professions education programs to take bold action in developing and implementing innovative strategies to address student educational debt burden, as ameliorating debt burden may ultimately help facilitate improved access to health care,” wrote coauthors Christina Spivey and Marie Chisholm-Burns of the office of the provost at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland (Am J Pharm Educ, July 4, 2024).
In the U.S., educational loan debt has doubled since 2000. Currently, student debt in the U.S. exceeds $1.7 trillion.
Source: Dentists’ debt-to-income ratios worse than other health workers / DrBicuspid