Education, cognitive ability, and cause-specific mortality: A structural approach

Govert Bijwaard, Per Tynelius and Mikko Myrskylä

Population Studies, 2019, vol. 73, issue 2, 217-232

Abstract: Education is negatively associated with most major causes of death. Prior work ignores the premise that cause-specific hazards are interdependent and that both education and mortality depend on cognitive ability. We analyse Swedish men aged 18–63, focusing on months lost due to specific causes—which solves the interdependence problem—and use a structural model that accounts for confounding due to cognitive ability. In a standard Cox model controlling for Intelligence Quotient, improving education is associated with large decreases in mortality for major causes of death. In the structural model, improving education is associated with a small decrease in months lost for most causes and education levels. Among the least educated, however, improving education strongly reduces the months lost, mainly those lost from external causes, such as accidents and suicide. Results suggest that conventional analysis of education and mortality may be biased, even if accounting for observed cognition.

Date: 2019
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Related works:
Working Paper: Education, cognitive ability and cause-specific mortality: a structural approach (2016)
Working Paper: Education, Cognitive Ability and Cause-Specific Mortality: A Structural Approach (2016)
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DOI: 10.1080/00324728.2018.1493135

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Population Studies is currently edited by John Simons, Francesco Billari, James J. Brown, John Cleland, Andrew Foster, John McDonald, Tom Moultrie, Mikko Myrsklä, Alice Reid, Wendy Sigle-Rushton, Ronald Skeldon and Frans Willekens

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