State-Level Variation in the Association Between Educational Attainment and Sleep

Connor Sheehan (), Anna Zajacova, Dylan Connor and Jennifer Karas Montez
Additional contact information
Connor Sheehan: Arizona State University
Anna Zajacova: University of Western Ontario
Dylan Connor: Arizona State University
Jennifer Karas Montez: Syracuse University

Population Research and Policy Review, 2022, vol. 41, issue 3, No 16, 1137-1160

Abstract: Abstract Demographers have consistently documented the importance of educational attainment for population-health. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the relationship between educational attainment and health varies considerably across contexts. This study examines how the education-sleep association varies across U.S. states to glean insights into whether and how states may shape the importance of education for sleep and for which education level(s) there is the most state-level variation. Using data from the 2014, 2016, and 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey (n = 798,242), we fit multinomial regression models predicting self-reported sleep duration (normal-sleep of seven to eight hours as base, short-sleep of six or fewer hours, and long-sleep of nine or more hours) from education and state of residence, before and after adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, behavior-related, and health covariates. We find that the education-sleep association varies considerably across states. This variation is driven primarily by the low-educated; those with high levels of education have similarly advantaged sleep durations across states. We show that adjusting for socioeconomic, behavioral and health covariates explained most of the state level education-sleep variation and that health factors were especially important for short-sleep while socioeconomic factors were especially important for long-sleep, suggesting that policies that minimize health and socioeconomic disparities across states could minimize educational inequality in sleep and educational variation across states. Our findings thus document variation across states in the education-sleep association and suggest that those with lower levels of education may be most vulnerable to state characteristics.

Keywords: Education; Sleep; States; Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; Geography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11113-021-09684-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:poprpr:v:41:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11113-021-09684-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... es/journal/11113/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11113-021-09684-1

Access Statistics for this article

Population Research and Policy Review is currently edited by D.A. Swanson

More articles in Population Research and Policy Review from Springer, Southern Demographic Association (SDA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().