Abstract
The educational gradient of U.S. adult mortality became steeper between 1960 and the mid-1980s, but whether it continued to steepen is less clear given a dearth of attention to these trends since then. This study provides new evidence on trends in the education-mortality gradient from 1986 through 2006 by race, gender, and age among non-Hispanic Whites and Blacks using data from the 2010 release of the National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File. Results show that for White and Black men, the gradient steepened among older ages because declines in mortality risk across education levels were greater among the higher educated. The gradient steepened among White women, and to a lesser extent among Black women, because mortality risk decreased among the college-educated but increased among women with less than a high school diploma. Greater returns to higher education and compositional changes within educational strata likely contributed to the trends.
|
Alexander, Karl L., Doris R. Entwisle, and Nader S. Kabbani . 2001. "The Dropout Process in Life Course Perspective: Early Risk Factors at Home and School." Teachers College Record 103:760-822. Google Scholar | |
|
Arias, Elizabeth. 2010. United States Life Tables, 2006. National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 58 No. 21. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Google Scholar | |
|
Bishop, Christine E. 1999. "Where Are the Missing Elders? The Decline in Nursing Home Use, 1985 and 1995." Health Affairs 18:146-55. Google Scholar | |
|
Carnes, Bruce A. and S. Jay Olshansky. 2007. "A Realistic View of Aging, Mortality, and Future Longevity." Population and Development Review 33:367-81. Google Scholar | |
|
Centers for Disease Control. 2008. "Cigarette Smoking Among Adults-United States, 2007." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 57:1221-226. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Crimmins, Eileen M. and Yasuhiko Saito. 2001. "Trends in Healthy Life Expectancy in the United States, 1970-1990: Gender, Racial, and Educational Differences." Social Science & Medicine 52:1629-641. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Cutler, David M., Fabian Lange, Ellen Meara, Seth Richards, and Christopher J. Ruhm. 2010. "Explaining the Rise in Educational Gradients in Mortality." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 15678, Cambridge, MA. Google Scholar | |
|
Cutler, David M. and Adriana Lleras-Muney. 2006. "Education and Health: Evaluating Theories and Evidence." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 12352, Cambridge, MA. Google Scholar | |
|
DiPrete, Thomas A. and Claudia Buchmann. 2006. "Gender-specific Trends in the Value of Education and the Emerging Gender Gap in College Completion." Demography 43:1-24. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Duleep, Harriet Orcutt. 1989. "Measuring Socioeconomic Mortality Differentials Over Time." Demography 26:345-51. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Elo, Irma T. and Samuel H. Preston. 1996. "Educational Differentials in Mortality: United States, 1979-85." Social Science & Medicine 42:47-57. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Escobedo, Luis G. and John P. Peddicord. 1996. "Smoking Prevalence in U.S. Birth Cohorts: The Influence of Gender and Education." American Journal of Public Health 86:231-36. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Feldman, Jacob J., Diane M. Makuc, Joel C. Kleinman, and Joan Cornoni-Huntley. 1989. "National Trends in Educational Differentials in Mortality." American Journal of Epidemiology 129:919-33. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Freeman, Catherine E. 2004. Trends in Educational Equity of Girls & Women 2004. (NCES2005-016). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Google Scholar | |
|
Fries, James F. 1980. "Aging, Natural Death, and the Compression of Morbidity." The New England Journal of Medicine 303:130-35. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Frisbie, W. Parker, Seung-Eun Song, Daniel A. Powers, and Julie A. Street . 2004. "The Increasing Racial Disparity in Infant Mortality: Respiratory Distress Syndrome and Other Causes." Demography 41:773-800. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Gallagher, Rita Munley. 2000. "How Long-term Care Is Changing." American Journal of Nursing 100:66-7. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Glied, Sherry and Adriana Lleras-Muney. 2008. "Technological Innovation and Inequality in Health." Demography 45:741-61. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
House, James S., Karl R. Landis, and Debra Umberson. 1988. "Social Relationships and Health." Science 241:540-45. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Hummer, Robert A. and Joseph T. Lariscy. Forthcoming. "Educational Attainment and Adult Mortality." In International Handbook of Adult Mortality, edited by R. G. Rogers and E. M. Crimmins. New York: Springer Publishers. | |
|
Ingram, Deborah D., Kimberly A. Lochner, and Christine S. Cox . 2008. Mortality Experience of the 1986-2000 National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File Participants . Vital Health Statistics, Vol. 2, No. 147. Washington, DC: National Center for Health Statistics. Google Scholar | |
|
Jemal, Ahmedin, Michael J. Thun, Elizabeth E. Ward, S. Jane Henley, Vilma E. Cokkinides, and Taylor E. Murray . 2008. "Mortality From Leading Causes by Education and Race in the United States, 2001." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 34:1-8. Medline | |
|
Jemal, Ahmedin, Elizabeth Ward, Robert N. Anderson, Taylor Murray, and Michael J. Thun . 2008. "Widening of Socioeconomic Inequalities in U.S. Death Rates, 19932001." PLoS ONE 3(5):e21813:1-8. Google Scholar | |
|
Kitagawa, Evelyn M. and Philip M. Hauser. 1973. Differential Mortality in the United States: A Study in Socioeconomic Epidemiology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Kravdal, ystein. 2008. "A Broader Perspective on Education and Mortality: Are We Influenced by Other People’s Education?" Social Science & Medicine 66:620-36. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Lauderdale, Diane S. 2001. "Education and Survival: Birth Cohort, Period, and Age Effects." Demography 38:551-61. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Lillard, Lee A. and Linda J. Waite. 1995. "‘Til Death Do Us Part’: Marital Disruption and Mortality." American Journal of Sociology 100:1131-156. Google Scholar | |
|
Lin, Charles C., Eugene Rogot, Norman J. Johnson, Paul D. Sorlie, and Elizabeth Arias . 2003. "A Further Study of Life Expectancy by Socioeconomic Factors in the National Longitudinal Mortality Study." Ethnicity & Disease 13:240-47. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Lochner, Kimberly, Robert A. Hummer, Stephanie Bartee, Gloria Wheatcroft, and Christine Cox . 2008. "The Public-use National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Files: Methods of Reidentification Risk Avoidance and Comparative Analysis." American Journal of Epidemiology 168:336-44. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Lynch, Scott M. 2003. "Cohort and Life-course Patterns in the Relationship Between Education and Health: A Hierarchical Approach." Demography 40:309-31. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
McPherson, Miller, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and Matthew E. Brashears . 2006. "Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks Over Two Decades." American Sociological Review 71:353-75. Google Scholar | |
|
Meara, Ellen R., Seth Richards, and David M. Cutler . 2008. "The Gap Gets Bigger: Changes in Mortality and Life Expectancy, by Education, 1981-2000." Health Affairs 27:350-60. Google Scholar | |
|
Molla, Michael T., Jennifer H. Madans, and Diane K. Wagener . 2004. "Differentials in Adult Mortality and Activity Limitation by Years of Education in the United States at the End of the 1990s." Population and Development Review 30 :625-46. Google Scholar | |
|
Montez, Jennifer Karas, Mark D. Hayward, Dustin C. Brown, and Robert A. Hummer . 2009. "Why Is the Educational Gradient in Mortality Steeper for Men?" Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 64 :625-34. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Moore, David E. and Mark D. Hayward. 1990. "Occupational Careers and Mortality of Elderly Men." Demography 27:31-53. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
National Center for Health Statistics. 2001 . Healthy People 2000 Final Review. Hyattsville, MD: Public Health Service. Google Scholar | |
|
National Center for Health Statistics. 2005 . 2004 National Health Interview Survey Public Use Data Release . Hyattsville, MD. Retrieved May 6, 2010 (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/srvydesc.pdf ). Google Scholar | |
|
National Center for Health Statistics. 2009 . The National Health Interview Survey (1986-2004) Linked Mortality Files, Mortality Follow-up through 2006: Matching Methodology. Hyattsville, MD. Retrieved April 25, 2010 (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/datalinkage/matching_methodology_nhis_final.pdf ). Google Scholar | |
|
Pappas, Gregory, Susan Queen, Wilbur Hadden, and Gail Fisher. 1993. "The Increasing Disparity in Mortality Between Socioeconomic Groups in the United States, 1960 and 1986." New England Journal of Medicine 329:103-09. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Phelan, Jo C. and Bruce G. Link. 2005. "Controlling Disease and Creating Disparities: A Fundamental Cause Perspective." Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences 60 (Special Issue II):27-33. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Phelan, Jo C., Bruce G. Link, Ana Diez-Rouz, Ichiro Kawachi, and Bruce Levin. 2004. "‘Fundamental Causes’ of Social Inequalities in Mortality: A Test of the Theory." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 45:265-85. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Pleis, John R. and Margaret Lethbridge-Çejku . 2007. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: National Health Interview Survey, 2006. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics . Google Scholar | |
|
Portes, Alejandro and Min Zhou. 1993. "The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and Its Variants." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 530:74-96. Google Scholar | |
|
Preston, Samuel H. and Irma T. Elo. 1995. "Are Educational Differentials in Adult Mortality Increasing in the United States?" Journal of Aging and Health 7: 476-96. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Preston, Samuel H. and Paul Taubman. 1994. "Socioeconomic Differences in Adult Mortality and Health Status." Pp. 279-318 in Demography of Aging, edited by L. G. Martin and S. H. Preston. Washington DC: National Academy Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Rogers, Richard G., Robert A. Hummer, and Charles B. Nam . 2000. Living and Dying in the USA: Behavioral, Health, and Social Differentials of Adult Mortality. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Rogot, Eugene, Paul D. Sorlie, and Norman J. Johnson . 1992. "Life Expectancy by Employment Status, Income, and Education in the National Longitudinal Mortality Study." Public Health Reports 107:457-61. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Ross, Catherine E. and Chia-Ling Wu. 1995. "The Links Between Education and Health." American Sociological Review 60:719-45. Google Scholar | |
|
Rumberger, Russell W. 1995. "Dropping out of Middle School: A Multilevel Analysis of Students and Schools." American Educational Research Journal 32:583-625. Google Scholar | |
|
Sahyoun, Nadine R., Laura A. Pratt, Harold Lentzner, Achintya Dey, and Kristen N. Robinson . 2001. The Changing Profile of Nursing Home Residents: 1985-1997. Aging Trends; No 4. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Google Scholar | |
|
Schwartz, Christine R. and Robert D. Mare. 2005. "Trends in Educational Assortative Marriage From 1940 to 2003." Demography 42:621-46. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Smith, Kirsten P. and Nicholas A. Christakis. 2008. "Social Networks and Health." Annual Review of Sociology 34:405-29. Google Scholar | |
|
Sorlie, Paul D. and Norman J. Johnson. 1996. "Validity of Education Information on the Death Certificate." Epidemiology 7:437-39. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Sudaan. 2005. Software for the Statistical Analysis of Correlated Data. V9.0.2. Research Triangle Park, NC: Research Triangle Institute. Google Scholar | |
|
Umberson, Debra. 1987. "Family Status and Health Behaviors: Social Control as a Dimension of Social Integration." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 28:306-19. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
U.S. Census Bureau. 2008. Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008. Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Divorces, Table 105. Washington, DC: Author. Google Scholar | |
|
Waite, Linda J. 1995. "Does Marriage Matter?" Demography 32:483-507. Google Scholar Medline | |
|
Winkleby, Marilyn A., Darius E. Jatulis, Erica Frank, and Stephen P. Fortmann . 1992. "Socioeconomic Status and Health: How Education, Income, and Occupation Contribute to Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease." American Journal of Public Health 82:816-20. Google Scholar Medline |
