Better education translates into longer life expectancy, study finds
Life expectancy has been steadily rising for Americans, but only better-educated people are enjoying longer lifespans while those with high school diplomas or less are falling further behind, a Harvard study says.
A 25-year-old in 1990 who had 12 years of education or less could look ahead to living until not quite 75, according to the study in the current issue of Health Affairs. At the same point, a 25-year-old with at least some college education could look forward to reaching 80.
In 2000, a 25-year-old who did not go beyond high school would still be expected to live to almost 75, but the better-educated 25-year-old’s life expectancy went up to 81.6 years, based on an analysis of death certificates, Census population estimates, and national mortality data, the most recent information available.
"We all know life expectancy is lengthening, which is very encouraging news, but that improvement is happening just for the better-educated group," Ellen Meara of Harvard Medical School said in an interview. "Not only is the gain not happening as quickly for those with less education, but on average it is flat."
The education gap persisted among both non-Hispanic black and white Americans, the study said. Hispanic blacks and whites were not included to limit the impact of immigration on the results, the authors wrote.
Deaths from diseases strongly linked to smoking -- lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder -- accounted for one-fifth of the life-expectancy gap between the groups with different levels of education. That fits with other research that shows people with less education are less likely to quit smoking.
Meara, an assistant professor of health economics, said the paper will challenge health experts to extend the success that anti-smoking strategies have had among the better educated to people who have less education. Smoking is just one example, she said, with obesity among other risk factors that can be attacked.
"It’s not that surprising to see people making different gains in different places at different rates," she said. But "we find it unsettling when one group enjoys such a great health advantage in terms of the lifespan they can expect."
This research further supports a unique partnership in Maine, the Harold Alfond College Challenge, where the foundation for the Dexter Shoe founder is providing $500 in a 529 college saving plan to every newborn in Maine - in perpetuity. The program launched just this January at MaineGeneral Health's hospitals and rolls out statewide in 2009. The partnership with the hospitals to help educate expectant parents and encourage their enrollment is a new twist on community health outreach and preventative health measures over the course of a person's lifetime, literally from birth. These findings in the Harvard research ought to encourage more parents to start saving for college from birth to provide their children yet another advantage to a healthy and informed life.
So if I get a masters I can live another 6 months in adult depends. Sounds great. I think I lost a day of my life reading this trivial article.
This news item is misleading. People will assume that this is a causal relationship. There are a lot of other interacting factors at play here, including income, parenting style, diet, exercise, stress, exposure to dangerous working conditions, etc.... people with more education may have any or most of those. It's not necessarily the education causing longer life span.
If you look hard enough, you'll probably find that eating sushi relates to longer lifespan. Not because of anything about sushi, but because it's something eaten by wealthier people. But, you wouldn't post the misleading headline, "Eating sushi translates into longer life expectancy, study finds," would you?
Looks Like you better get gong to grad school....hahahaha
In response to the "misleading" comment:
Nowhere did the article actually claim causality. However reasonable people could disagree on whether "translates into" acutally means the same thing as "causes" or merely means "goes hand in hand with", i.e. "strongly correlates with". Many people are aware that drinking milk as a child causes homicide because all killers drank milk as children....yet there is no correlation, much less causasion. Better education provides a host of benefits directly, and now it seems clear that one of the indirect benefits is a longer life span.
"Better educated" people HAVE to live longer in order to pay off those college tuition loans in their lifetime!
"Better educated" have to live longer...in order to pay of those college tuition loans in their lifetime!
Talk about reinventing the wheel! I find it astonishing that good money was actually spent on this study! Better educated people are better informed, have better knowledge of activities that promote good health, have more money to join gyms, lavish $120 on good running shoes, $1,000 on a long weekend of on the slopes, eat fresh veggies, etc. IT'S OBVIOUS!
I'm applying for federal funds to support a study to determine if more highly educated people are more likely to be victims of scams.....
It's obvious that such dependency is very likely - it's far from obvious that difference in life expectancy is so large (5 years)
Obviously, people with more education tend to be wealthier, more informed about nutrition, and so on. No surprise here. Similar studies have shown that people who consume wine are more intelligent and live longer than those who dont. Again such studies are confounded by the wealth factor and a constallation of other factors.
Several of the critics who have commented on this article claim that the Harvard study simply states the obvious, and they attempt to diminish the findings by insinuating that college graduates will, of course, live longer because they have a better start... healthier families, wealthier backgrounds, etc. What the critics fail to recognize, however, is that college is not just for the wealthy. Many first-generation and low-income students are attending colleges and universities, especially two-year community colleges. The critics seem to take a narrow view of what college education can really do for the quality of life of an individual and for our communities at large.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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