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Research Published in The Lancet Public Health Journal Highlights the Profound Impact of Education on Mortality
A comprehensive study published in The Lancet Public Health Journal reveals that attending a university or school not only increases life expectancy but may be as crucial to health as avoiding smoking or binge drinking. Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) analyzed around 10,000 data points sourced from over 600 published articles across 59 different nations, demonstrating the broad-reaching benefits of education on life expectancy.
Life-Saving Impact of Education: The study, conducted by the NTNU research team, uncovered a striking correlation between education and mortality rates. Irrespective of social and demographic factors, age, sex, or location, attending an educational institution was found to significantly contribute to longer life. For every additional year of schooling, the likelihood of dying decreased by 2%, resulting in an average 13% reduction in death risk for individuals who completed six years of elementary school.
Education vs. Risk Factors: Comparisons with other risk factors, including maintaining a healthy diet, smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption, highlighted the health benefits of education. Completing secondary school decreased the chance of dying by approximately 25%, and with 18 years of schooling, the reduction was an impressive 34%. The study equated the positive impact of 18 years of education to consuming the ideal amount of vegetables compared to not eating vegetables at all.
Remarkably, the study revealed that skipping school entirely was equivalent to the health risks associated with consuming five or more alcoholic beverages or ten cigarettes daily for a decade.
Benefits Across Age Groups and Nations: While the study acknowledged that youth receive significant benefits from education, it emphasized that adults over 50 and even 70 years old also experience protective effects. Moreover, there was no discernible variation in the effects of schooling across nations with varying degrees of development, indicating that the advantages of longer education are consistent across wealthy and developing nations.
Addressing Persistent Inequalities: Co-author Terje Andreas Eikemo from NTNU underscored the importance of education not only for its impact on health but also for the measurable magnitude of its benefits. The researchers emphasized the need for increased social investments in global education to mitigate persistent inequalities that contribute to avoidable deaths.
Mirza Balaj, co-lead author and postdoctoral fellow at NTNU, highlighted that more education leads to better employment, higher income, improved access to healthcare, and enhanced abilities to care for one’s health. Balaj urged global efforts to close the education gap, stating that interrupting the cycle of poverty and preventable deaths requires international commitment.
Claire Henson, co-lead author and researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, emphasized the importance of investing in education to reduce inequalities in mortality, asserting that such investments have a positive impact on population health worldwide. The study concluded by calling for additional research in low- and middle-income nations to further explore the impact of education on life expectancy.
