Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Education and health: evidence on adults with diabetes

  • Published:
International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 12 July 2011

Abstract

Although the education-health relationship is well documented, pathways through which education influences health are not well understood. This study uses data from a 2003–2004 cross sectional supplemental survey of respondents to the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study (HRS) who had been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus to assess effects of education on health and mechanisms underlying the relationship. The supplemental survey provides rich detail on use of personal health care services (e.g., adherence to guidelines for diabetes care) and personal attributes which are plausibly largely time invariant and systematically related to years of schooling completed, including time preference, self-control, and self-confidence. Educational attainment, as measured by years of schooling completed, is systematically and positively related to time to onset of diabetes, and conditional on having been diagnosed with this disease on health outcomes, variables related to efficiency in health production, as well as use of diabetes specialists. However, the marginal effects of increasing educational attainment by a year are uniformly small. Accounting for other factors, including child health and child socioeconomic status which could affect years of schooling completed and adult health, adult cognition, income, and health insurance, and personal attributes from the supplemental survey, marginal effects of educational attainment tend to be lower than when these other factors are not included in the analysis, but they tend to remain statistically significant at conventional levels.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams P., Hurd M. D., McFadden D., Merrill A., Ribeiro T. (2003) Healthy, wealthy, and wise? Tests for direct causal paths between health and socioeconomic status. Journal of Econometrics 112(1): 3–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adler N. E., Rehkopf D. H. (2008) Us disparities in health: Descriptions, causes, and mechanisms [Review]. Annual Review of Public Health 29: 235–252. doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.29.020907.090852

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Albouy V., Lequien L. (2009) Does compulsory education lower mortality?.   Journal of Health Economics 28(1): 155–168. doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2008.09.003

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • American Diabetes Association: (2009) Standards of medical care in diabetes—2009. Diabetes Care 32: S13–S61. doi:10.2337/dc09-S013

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arendt J. N. (2008) In sickness and in health—till education do us part: Education effects on hospitalization. Economics of Education Review 27(2): 161–172. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2006.08.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barsky R. B., Juster F. T., Kimball M. S., Shapiro M. D. (1997) Preference parameters and behavioral heterogeneity: An experimental approach in the health and retirement study. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 112(2): 537–579

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandt J., Spencer M., Folstein M. (1998) The telephone interview for cognitive status. Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology 1: 111–117

    Google Scholar 

  • Breierova, L., & Duflo, E. (2004). The impact of education on fertility and child mortality: Do fathers really matter less than mothers? National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 10513.

  • Case A., Fertig A., Paxson C. (2005) The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance. Journal of Health Economics 24(2): 365–389. doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2004.09.008

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Case A., Lubotsky D., Paxson C. (2002) Economic status and health in childhood: The origins of the gradient. American Economic Review 92(5): 1308–1334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chou S.-Y., Liu J.-T., Grossman M., Joyce T. (2010) Parental education and child health: Evidence from a natural experiment in Taiwan. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 2(1): 33–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conley D., Bennett N. G. (2000) Is biology destiny? Birth weight and life chances [Article]. American Sociological Review 65(3): 458–467

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowell A. J. (2006) The relationship between education and health behavior: Some empirical evidence. Health Economics 15(2): 125–146. doi:10.1002/hec.1019

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Currie J., Moretti E. (2003) Mother’s education and the intergenerational transmission of human capital: Evidence from college openings. Quarterly Journal of Economics 118(4): 1495–1532

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Currie J., Stabile M. (2003) Socioeconomic status and child health: Why is the relationship stronger for older children?.   American Economic Review 93(5): 1813–1823

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cutler D. M., Lleras-Muney A. (2010) Understanding differences in health behaviors by education. Journal of Health Economics 29(1): 1–28. doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2009.10.003

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Walque D. (2007a) Does education affect smoking behaviors? Evidence using the Vietnam draft as an instrument for college education. Journal of Health Economics 26(5): 877–895. doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2006.12.005

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Walque D. (2007b) How does the impact of an HIV/AIDS information campaign vary with educational attainment? Evidence from rural Uganda. Journal of Development Economics 84(2): 686–714. doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2006.12.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs V. R. (1982) Time preference and health: An exploratory study. In: Fuchs V. R. (ed.) Economic aspects of health. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 93–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldman D.P., Smith J.P. (2002) Can patient self-management help explain the SES health gradient?. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99(16): 10929–10934. doi:10.1073/pnas.162086599

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman M. (1972) On the concept of health capital and the demand for health. The Journal of Political Economy 80(2): 223–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman M. (2004) The demand for health, 30 years later: A very personal retrospective and prospective reflection. Journal of Health Economics 23(4): 629–636. doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2004.04.001

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haas S. A. (2006) Health selection and the process of social stratification: The effect of childhood health on socioeconomic attainment [Article]. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 47(4): 339–354

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heckman J. J. (2008) Economic Inquiry 46(3): 289–324

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jayachandran S., Lleras-Muney A. (2009) Life expectancy and human capital investments: Evidence from maternal mortality declines. Quarterly Journal of Economics 124(1): 349–397

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kenkel D., Lillard D., Mathios A. (2006) The roles of high school completion and GED receipt in smoking and obesity. Journal of Labor Economics 24(3): 635–660

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khwaja A., Sloan F., Wang Y. (2009) Do smokers value their health and longevity less?.   Journal of Law & Economics 52(1): 171–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitagawa E., Hauser P. (1973) Differential mortality in the United States. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Lleras-Muney A. (2005) The relationship between education and adult mortality in the United States. Review of Economic Studies 72(1): 189–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCrary, J., & Royer, H. (2006). The effect of female education on fertility and infant health: Evidence from school entry policies using exact date of birth. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 12329.

  • Nordin M. (2008) Ability and rates of return to schooling-making use of the Swedish enlistment battery test. Journal of Population Economics 21(3): 703–717. doi:10.1007/s00148-006-0131-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oreopoulos P. (2006) Estimating average and local average treatment effects of education when compulsory schooling laws really matter. American Economic Review 96(1): 152–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oreopoulos P., Stabile M., Walld R., Roos L. L. (2008) Short-, medium-, and long-term consequences of poor infant health—an analysis using siblings and twins. Journal of Human Resources 43(1): 88–138

    Google Scholar 

  • Osili U. O., Long B. T. (2008) Does female schooling reduce fertility? Evidence from Nigeria. Journal of Development Economics 87(1): 57–75. doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2007.10.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards M., Shipley B., Fuhrer R., Wadsworth M. E. J. (2004) Cognitive ability in childhood and cognitive decline in mid-life: Longitudinal birth cohort study. British Medical Journal 328(7439): 552–554B. doi:10.1136/bmj.37972.513819.EE

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz T. (1962) Reflections on investment in man. The Journal of Political Economy 70(5): 1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sloan F. A., Bethel M. A., Ruiz D., Shea A. H., Feinglos M. N. (2008) The growing burden of diabetes mellitus in the US elderly population. Archives of Internal Medicine 168(2): 192–199

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sloan F. A., Padron N. A., Platt A. C. (2009) Preferences, beliefs, and self-management of diabetes. Health Services Research 44(3): 1068–1087

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smith J. P. (2007) The impact of socioeconomic status on health over the life-course. Journal of Human Resources 42(4): 739–764

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith J. P. (2009) The impact of childhood health on adult labor market outcomes. Review of Economics and Statistics 91(3): 478–489

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, 60 College Street, P.O. Box 208034, New Haven, CT, 06520-8034, USA

    Padmaja Ayyagari

  2. Department of Economics, Duke University, 236 Social Sciences Building, Box 90097, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Daniel Grossman & Frank Sloan

Authors
  1. Padmaja Ayyagari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Daniel Grossman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Frank Sloan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frank Sloan.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10754-011-9093-7

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ayyagari, P., Grossman, D. & Sloan, F. Education and health: evidence on adults with diabetes. Int J Health Care Finance Econ 11, 35–54 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10754-010-9087-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10754-010-9087-x

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation