The role of education in explaining trends in self-rated health in the United States, 1972–2018

Jona Schellekens and Anat Ziv
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Jona Schellekens: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Anat Ziv: University of New Brunswick

Demographic Research, 2020, vol. 42, issue 12, 383-398

Abstract: Background: The percentage of older adults in the United States reporting being in good health has increased since the 1980s. Objective: This study tries to explain long-term trends in self-rated health in the United States. Methods: We used 47 years of repeated cross-sectional data from the National Health Interview Survey to estimate regression models that predict trends in self-rated health. Results: Our results show that the improvement in self-rated health of men as well as women aged 50–84 is largely explained by gains in educational attainment. Self-rated health has slightly improved among those with post-secondary education, while it did not improve among those without post-secondary education. Contribution: This study is one of the few to try to explain long-term trends in self-rated health. It does so for a much longer period of time than any previous study.

Keywords: self-rated health; education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:demres:v:42:y:2020:i:12

DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2020.42.12

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