Researchers at the University of Colorado Denver found that lack of education could be as deadly as smoking.
The team looked at data between 1986 and 2006 to find a link between education and death. Ten percent of the population between ages 25 and 34 failed to finish high school while 29 percent did not have bachelor degrees, according to the study.
Further analysis showed that people with higher levels of education are more likely to live longer compared to those who are less educated. Using the same formula for computing the smoking mortality rates, the team estimated that about 145,243 deaths could have been prevented if people were able to finish high school and another 110,068 if they had a college degree. The mortality rates are similar to that of smokers.
The study attributed this difference to higher income, healthier behaviors and improved social and psychological well-being. Lack of education, on the other hand, can lead to riskier behaviors, poor quality of health care, poor nutrition and poor housing and working conditions, which could result in higher stress levels, according to the Washington Post.
“Our results suggest that policies and interventions that improve educational attainment could substantially improve survival in the U.S. population, especially given widening educational disparities,” Patrick Krueger, study co-author and assistant professor in the Department of Health & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver, said in a university news release. “Unless these trends change, the mortality attributable to low education will continue to increase in the future.”
The researchers admitted that further research is needed because they focused more on association and not causality. The study was published in the July 8 issue of PLOS ONE.
