Education and health in the Czech Republic

Researchers in the United States have found that education and health are related. This relation may be due to the better market position of the educated, their greater store of personal and social resources, and/or their healthier lifestyle. These three connections between education and health are tested in the Czech Republic with three waves of panel data. We regress self-reports of health and physical functioning in 1994 on multiple indicators of market position in 1994, change in market position from 1989 to 1994, personal/social resources and health lifestyle with demographic controls. These regressions are followed by a longitudinal analysis of changes in panel members' health and physical functioning between 1994 and 1996. The cross-sectional results are similar to those in the United States with important exceptions. Unlike the United States, market position does fully mediate the relation between education and health in the Czech Republic, largely through subjective feelings regarding market position. The longitudinal analysis shows that prior health and physical functioning mediate the effect of education on health and physical functioning in 1996.