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Article History

Received: 12 August 2024

Accepted: 12 December 2025

First Online: 29 December 2025

Declarations

:

: The study did not require ethics approval because all self-reported survey data used were not from patients, did not include medical records and were voluntarily and completely anonymously collected and therefore do not fall within the scope of Switzerland’s Federal Act on Research involving Human Beings. This so-called Swiss Human Research Act does explicitly not apply to anonymously collected or anonymized health-related data (HRA Art. 2 / ). Self-reported survey data collected among the 219 overindebted adult residents of the Canton of Zurich therefore were granted exemption from ethics approval (Kanton Zürich, Kantonale Ethikkommission. BASEC-Nr. Req-2019-00173), and informed consent was obtained from all survey participants and overindebted individuals.No approval was required likewise for the use of the secondary and publicly accessible data of the Swiss Health Survey among randomly selected inhabitants of Switzerland which are periodically collected and provided by the Federal Statistical Office.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.