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Does better education mitigate risky health behavior? A mendelian randomization study
Jutta Viinikainen1, Alex Bryson2, Petri Böckerman3
1University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Economics and Human Biology
|March 30, 2022
Summary
Higher education is linked to healthier choices, particularly reduced smoking. However, the causal impact of education on drinking habits and precise dietary changes remains unclear, indicating nuanced effects on overall health behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Health Economics
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Education and risky health behaviors exhibit a strong negative correlation.
- Potential mechanisms include increased income, health information, and altered time preferences.
- Reverse causality and unobserved confounders may influence this observed relationship.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the causal effect of education on risky health behaviors.
- To investigate the influence of educational attainment on lifestyle choices.
- To differentiate between correlation and causation in the education-health behavior link.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.
- Linked educational attainment and family background data.
- Employed a genetic score as an instrumental variable for years of education to identify causal effects.
Main Results:
- Higher education causally leads to greater attention to healthy habits.
- Highly educated individuals demonstrated a lower likelihood of smoking.
- Evidence for increased fruit and vegetable consumption among the highly educated was imprecise.
- No causal effect was detected between education and abusive drinking.
Conclusions:
- Higher education promotes healthier choices in specific areas, notably smoking cessation.
- The causal impact of education on certain health behaviors, like abusive drinking and precise dietary intake, is not definitively established.
- Genetic instrument analysis reveals a complex, multifaceted relationship between education and health behaviors.
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