Education Can Save Your Life

There is a long and steady positive relationship between education and longevity--the more education you have, the longer you are likely to live. And I say that not just because I am a college professor and have a vested interest in that relationship. It's a fact. But it is also becoming more complicated, according to another college professor, Robert Hummer, of the University of Texas. He will discuss his research online at the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) in Washington, DC, on June 9th. If you don't catch it live, it will be available later on the PRB website. Here's the teaser:

Many people know that individuals with higher levels of education tend to live longer and healthier lives than individuals with low levels of education. In a recent study, Robert Hummer and colleagues built on this knowledge by demonstrating new important characteristics of the relationship between education and adult mortality in the United States.

Among their findings: Each year of education does not have the same "meaning" in terms of reduced mortality risk of U.S. adults; and the data on mortality of more highly educated individuals shows less dispersion than the data on mortality of less educated individuals. The researchers also refined key pathways by which educational attainment influences adult mortality risk, including much higher levels of cigarette smoking among the less educated; and better jobs, higher income, and greater access to health insurance and social ties and resources among the more highly educated. Hummer and his colleagues also determined that over the past two decades, there has been increasing inequality in mortality risk by education in the United States.