An education gradient in health, a health gradient in education, or a confounded gradient in both?

Lynch, Jamie L.; Hippel, Paul T. von

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.02.029

Cited by 62 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Numerous studies have shown that parental education as well as early-life health and economic hardship predict educational attainment and partly explain the relationship between education and adult health (Behrman et al 2011; Duke and Macmillan 2016; Lynch and Hippel 2015; Ross and Mirowsky 2011). In the absence of comparative studies, the role of institutional factors in moderating health selection into education remains unexplored.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education and Physical Health Trajectories in Later Life: A Comparative Study

Leopold

2018

Demography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The cumulative (dis)advantage hypothesis states that health disparities between education groups increase with age. The present study examined this hypothesis in a comparative analysis of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Sweden. These countries offer sharp contrasts in the social conditions that may intensify or inhibit processes of cumulative (dis)advantage. Using harmonized panel data from the HRS, ELSA, and SHARE, the study applied Poisson multilevel regression models to trace changes in the number of chronic conditions and functional limitations of people aged 50–76 (N = 16,887 individuals; 71,154 observations). The four countries showed a clear gradient in levels of physical health and in the extent to which health trajectories were shaped by education. Across all ages and cohorts, health problems were most prevalent in the United States, less prevalent in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and least prevalent in Sweden. A similar cross-national gradient was found for the size of health gaps between education groups and for the extent to which these gaps widened with age. Gaps were largest in the United States, smaller in the United Kingdom and in the Netherlands, and smallest in Sweden.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13524-018-0674-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education and Physical Health Trajectories in Later Life: A Comparative Study

Leopold

2018

Demography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Education has been associated with both depressive symptoms and perceived discrimination. Higher levels of education are associated with lower levels of depression (Lynch & von Hippel, 2016), but higher levels of perceived age discrimination (Rippon, Kneale, de Oliveira, Demakakos, & Steptoe, 2014). Similarly, both marriage and employment are protective mechanisms in the face of depression (Montgomery, Cook, Bartley, & Wadsworth, 1999;Strine et al, 2015) and in the case of perceived ageism (Luo, Xu, Granberg, & Wentworth, 2011;Rippon et al, 2014).…”

Section: Potential Sociodemographic and Clinical Variables Of Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived Age Discrimination: A Precipitator or a Consequence of Depressive Symptoms?

Ayalon

2016

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: The main purpose of the study was to examine a bidirectional temporal relationship between perceived age discrimination and depressive symptoms. A secondary goal was to examine whether the negative effects of perceived age discrimination on one's depressive symptoms are stronger among respondents older than 70 years old, compared with respondents between the ages of 51 and 70. Methods: The Health and Retirement Study is a U.S. nationally representative sample of individuals over the age of 50 and their spouse of any age. A cross-lagged model was estimated to examine the reciprocal associations of depressive symptoms and perceived age discrimination, controlling for age, gender, education, ethnicity, marital status, employment status, satisfaction with financial status, number of medical conditions, mobility, strength and fine motor skills, and memory functioning. Results: The baseline model for the overall sample resulted in adequate fit indices: CFI = .945, TLI = .940, RMSEA = .024 (90% CI = .023, .025). The cross-lagged effect of perceived age discrimination on depressive symptoms was nonsignificant (B [SE] = −.01 [.04], p = .82), whereas the cross-lagged effect of depressive symptoms on perceived age discrimination was small, but significant (B [SE] = .04 [.02], p = .03). This implies that higher levels of depressive symptoms precede a greater likelihood of perceived age discrimination, net of sociodemographic and clinical variables. The cross-lagged effects did not vary according to age group (51-70 vs >70 years old). Discussion: The subjective nature of perceived age discrimination is discussed.

show abstract

“…The opposite is also true. Poorer health may result in lower education attainment (e.g., Case et al 2005; Currie and Madrian 1999; Haas 2006; Lynch and von Hippel 2016) because poor health can delay cognitive development (Hack et al 1995), cause social isolation and disengagement from school (Haas and Fosse 2008), lower expectations about the future and lower investment in human capital (Becker and Mulligan 1997). Perri (1984) reports that those with severe health problems obtained 2.4 fewer years of education than their healthy counterparts.…”

Section: Background Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The association between education and health might be a product of selection bias: reverse causation and confounding by unmeasured variables (or omitted variable bias). Reverse causation refers to the possibility that healthier individuals may stay in school longer and be more able to attain higher education (Currie and Madrian 1999; Lynch and von Hippel 2016). Omitted variable bias may result from the omitted factors that contribute to both education and health, e.g., family resources, parental health behaviors, birth condition, childhood health and nutrition status, intelligence, personality, or even genes (e.g., Currie and Hyson 1999; Case et al 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why does college education matter? Unveiling the contributions of selection factors

Zheng

2017

Social Science Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study investigates the contributions of pre-college selection factors that may partially lead to the college degree – health link by using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort. Propensity score matching method finds that the effects of college degree on various health outcomes (self-rated health, physical component summary index, health limitations, CESD scale) are reduced by 51% on average (range: 37%–70%) in the matched sample. Among these observed factors, cognitive skill is the biggest confounder, followed by pre-college health and socioeconomic characteristics (marital aspiration, years of schooling, marriage, fertility, poverty status) and non-cognitive skills (e.g., self-esteem). Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control scale is not significantly associated with all four health measures. The effects of most indicators of family background (parental education, family stability, family size, religious background) on the health of adult children are not direct but through offspring’s early adulthood health and socioeconomic status.

show abstract

An education gradient in health, a health gradient in education, or a confounded gradient in both?

Cited by 62 publications

References 53 publications

Education and Physical Health Trajectories in Later Life: A Comparative Study

Education and Physical Health Trajectories in Later Life: A Comparative Study

Perceived Age Discrimination: A Precipitator or a Consequence of Depressive Symptoms?

Why does college education matter? Unveiling the contributions of selection factors

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About