The effect of adult education on health-related behaviours

Abstract

Unhealthy behaviours continue to be pervasive and lead to premature death worldwide. According to previous research, school education appears to be a good predictor of unhealthy behaviours. The influence of adult education and training (AET) on health behaviour, on the other hand, has hardly been studied. Existing studies provide only indicative evidence on AET returns in terms of health-related behaviours, with no study to date examining the German context. Longitudinal data from NEPS SC6 (N = 7089) are used to examine whether participation in adult education affects changes in health-related behaviour positively, i.e., whether participants smoke or drink less and are more frequently active in sports. Hybrid regression models with interaction terms are estimated to test specific theoretical mechanisms. While participation in AET does not show any positive behavioural change in sports activity or alcohol consumption, participants in AET are more likely to smoke following AET participation within the last 12 or between the last 24 and 36 months. Implications are discussed and linked to the existing state of research.