Dr Terje Andreas Eikemo, study co-author and head of the Centre for Global Health Inequalities Research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, reveals that each additional year spent in education could reduce mortality by around two percent
Want to live longer? Get an education! This might sound like surprising advice, but that's exactly what researchers found when they looked at the impact of education on life expectancy. Their findings reveal that each additional year spent in education could reduce mortality by around 2%.
Many studies have demonstrated that higher levels of education are associated with longer life expectancy, but none has been able to determine the extent to which education can reduce mortality. A team of researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology has now investigated this question, and their findings suggest that every year spent in school or university has a significant influence on life expectancy.
"Education is important in its own right, not just for its benefits on health, but now being able to quantify the magnitude of this benefit is a significant development," explains Dr Terje Andreas Eikemo, study co-author and head of the Centre for Global Health Inequalities Research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, quoted in a news release.
Published in The Lancet Public Health, their findings highlight the fact that each additional year in education is associated with a 2% lower mortality risk. They point out that this corresponds to an average 13% lower risk of death for those who complete elementary school (around six years of schooling, depending on the region), compared to those who did not attend school. Graduation from secondary school (about 12 years of education) was associated with a 24.5% reduction in mortality, and graduation from higher education (18 years of schooling) with a 34% reduction in the risk of death.
"We need to increase social investments to enable access to better and more education around the globe to stop the persistent inequalities that are costing lives. More education leads to better employment and higher income, better access to healthcare, and helps us take care of our own health. Highly educated people also tend to develop a larger set of social and psychological resources that contribute to their health and the length of their lives," says study co-author, Mirza Balaj.
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"Closing the education gap means closing the mortality gap, and we need to interrupt the cycle of poverty and preventable deaths with the help of international commitment. In order to reduce inequalities in mortality, it’s important to invest in areas that promote people’s opportunities to get an education. This can have a positive effect on population health in all countries," concludes the study's co-lead author, Claire Henson, a researcher at Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine.