The Causal Effect of Education on Health: What is the Role of Health Behaviors?

Brunello, Giorgio; Fort, Margherita; Schneeweis, Nicole; Winter‐Ebmer, Rudolf

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1932091

Cited by 89 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In addition, the difference in health status between more and less educated individuals may increase over the years, for example because more educated individuals adopt more healthy behaviours whose effects manifest in the long term. Brunello et al () found a substantial long‐term effect of education‐induced health behaviours on individual health outcomes for European countries. Ross and Wu () and Prus () show, with US and Canadian data respectively, that the difference in health status between more and less educated individuals is larger for older individuals.…”

Section: Age As a Moderator Of The Relationship Between Education Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education as a Long‐Term Investment: The Decisive Role of Age in the Education‐Growth Relationship

Marconi¹

2018

Kyklos

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Summary Using a dataset for a panel of 118 countries, this paper shows that changes in the level of education of national populations aged 45 to 64 are positively associated with economic growth. An increase of one percentage point in the share of individuals in this age group who attended secondary education is associated with a 1.2% increase in GDP per capita. In contrast, variation in the level of education in younger cohorts is not positively associated with economic growth. These results suggest that investment in education benefits society, but only in the long‐term. Several possible explanations for this finding are discussed.

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Section: Age As a Moderator Of The Relationship Between Education Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education as a Long‐Term Investment: The Decisive Role of Age in the Education‐Growth Relationship

Marconi¹

2018

Kyklos

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“…Furthermore, both health and wellbeing also vary with education (Ross & Wu, ; Cutler & Lleras‐Muney, , ; Brunello, Fort, Schneeweis, & Winter‐Ebmer, ). Meeks and Murrell (), for instance, studied 1177 participants at a mean age of 67.4 years, and then three more times at 6‐month intervals.…”

Section: Personality As a Predictor Of Health And Wellbeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality and Other Lifelong Influences on Older–Age Health and Wellbeing: Preliminary Findings in Two Scottish Samples

et al. 2016

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Recent observations that personality traits are related to later‐life health and wellbeing have inspired considerable interest in exploring the mechanisms involved. Other factors, such as cognitive ability and education, also show longitudinal influences on health and wellbeing, but it is not yet clear how all these early‐life factors together contribute to later‐life health and wellbeing. In this preliminary study, we assessed hypothesised relations among these variables across the life course, using structural equation modelling in a sample assessed on dependability (a personality trait related to conscientiousness) in childhood, cognitive ability and social class in childhood and older age, education, and health and subjective wellbeing in older age. Our models indicated that both health and subjective wellbeing in older age were influenced by childhood IQ and social class, via education. Some older‐age personality traits mediated the effects of early‐life variables, on subjective wellbeing in particular, but childhood dependability did not show significant associations. Our results therefore did not provide evidence that childhood dependability promotes older‐age health and wellbeing, but did highlight the importance of other early‐life factors, particularly characteristics that contribute to educational attainment. Further, personality in later life may mediate the effects of early‐life factors on health and subjective wellbeing. © 2016 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology

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“…Highly educated individuals make healthier lifestyle choices; they are healthier and live longer. The literature has documented significant associations between education, general health, 1‐6 and health behaviors 5,7‐14 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education leads to a more physically active lifestyle: Evidence based on Mendelian randomization

Kari

Viinikainen

Böckerman

et al. 2020

Scandinavian Med Sci Sports

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Physical inactivity is a major health risk worldwide. Observational studies suggest that higher education is positively related to physical activity, but it is not clear whether this relationship constitutes a causal effect. Using participants (N = 1651) drawn from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study linked to nationwide administrative data from Statistics Finland, this study examined whether educational attainment, measured by years of education, is related to adulthood physical activity in terms of overall physical activity, weekly hours of intensive activity, total steps per day, and aerobic steps per day. We employed ordinary least squares (OLS) models and extended the analysis using an instrumental variables approach (Mendelian randomization, MR) with a genetic risk score as an instrument for years of education. Based on the MR results, it was found that years of education is positively related to physical activity. On average, one additional year of education leads to a 0.62‐unit higher overall physical activity (P < .01), 0.26 more hours of weekly intensive activity (P < .05), 560 more steps per day (P < .10), and 390 more aerobic steps per day (P < .09). The findings indicate that education may be a factor leading to higher leisure‐time physical activity and thus promoting global health.

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The Causal Effect of Education on Health: What is the Role of Health Behaviors?

Cited by 89 publications

References 42 publications

Education as a Long‐Term Investment: The Decisive Role of Age in the Education‐Growth Relationship

Education as a Long‐Term Investment: The Decisive Role of Age in the Education‐Growth Relationship

Personality and Other Lifelong Influences on Older–Age Health and Wellbeing: Preliminary Findings in Two Scottish Samples

Education leads to a more physically active lifestyle: Evidence based on Mendelian randomization

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