Rising educational gradients in mortality: The role of behavioral risk factors

David M. Cutler, Fabian Lange, Ellen Meara, Seth Richards-Shubik () and Christopher Ruhm

Journal of Health Economics, 2011, vol. 30, issue 6, 1174-1187

Abstract: The long-standing inverse relationship between education and mortality strengthened substantially at the end of the 20th century. This paper examines the reasons for this increase. We show that behavioral risk factors are not of primary importance. Smoking declined more for the better educated, but not enough to explain the trend. Obesity rose at similar rates across education groups, and control of blood pressure and cholesterol increased fairly uniformly as well. Rather, our results show that the mortality returns to risk factors, and conditional on risk factors, the return to education, have grown over time.

Keywords: Health inequality; Risk factors; Education and mortality; Smoking; Obesity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I20 J11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (60)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:30:y:2011:i:6:p:1174-1187

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2011.06.009

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