Whether or not you're in high school or college, we often wonder how that mathematic equation will help us in the long run, or if it’s really necessary to write dozens of papers on how the brain works. But, as it turns out, the power of knowledge may just save our lives.
USA Today College reports the scientific journal PLOS ONE recently published a study proving that those with a higher education live longer than those without. It also found that not achieving a high level of education could be just as harmful to one’s health as smoking cigarettes.
The study, called “Mortality Attributable to Low Levels of Education in the United States,” received data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the American Community Study (ACS).
Patrick Krueger, an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Colorado-Denver’s Anschutz Medical Campus and a member of the research faculty at the Institute of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder said education was the best component to compare with mortality, because of its consistency over time. “Education has received renewed attention by researchers, because it endures throughout the life course and is amenable to policy intervention,” Krueger said in an email to USA Today. “Annual income can change a lot from year to year. Although most individuals support policies to improve schools and to make education more accessible, changing the distribution of income and wealth is more controversial.”
As we all know, education impacts several other aspects of our lives—a fact not lost on Virginia Chang, an associate professor of public health at New York University and of population health at NYU School of Medicine. “[Education] also affects your social network, your access to information, your ability to understand information,” Chang told USA Today. “People with higher education feel like they have more agency and self-efficacy; they have more cognitive skills to manage any sort of complicated situation, to navigate the health care system; they have more social support.”
The study was organized into three groups: those who received a high school diploma versus those who didn’t; those with a bachelor degree against those with some college education; and, those with a bachelor degree versus those who achieved less than a bachelor degree. Conducted from 1986 to 2004, the researchers used more than a million participants from ages 25 to 85 to find data. The mortality and death data was collected through the Linked Mortality File and the National Death Index.
Studies found that failing high school had the same effect on mortality as smoking. “We found that over 145,000 lives could be saved if all of the adults aged 25 to 85 who don’t have a high school degree, went on to get a high school degree or equivalent,” Krueger said. “That alone accounts for about 10% of all deaths in the U.S. each year.” However, researchers explained that specific aspects could account for discrepancies, such as one’s environment, in the number of deaths. Furthermore, they found that 110, 068 deaths could have been avoided if those who went to college finished school.
However, the gap between mortality and education could be due to new health benefits. “The gap between different levels of education is increasing because as we make progress in certain health areas, such as with cardiovascular disease, people with more education tend to get those benefits first,” Chang said.
“I think with education policy, they should really think about the health benefits in addition to the usual reasons we advocate for education,” said Chang, as she and Kruger both think their study should impact education and public health policies. “Improving education would impact health widely, by resulting in healthier behaviors, higher incomes, stronger cognitive development and more vibrant social connects and psychosocial resources.”