This offers intriguing insights into the potential longevity benefits.
The call to “Stay in school” typically centers around the potential gains in wealth, social standing, and personal freedom linked to higher education. However, a recent international study, unveiled on January 23 in The Lancet Public Health journal, introduces a new perspective to this narrative – the prospect of an extended lifespan.
As per the study, there exists an inverse correlation between an individual’s educational attainment and their susceptibility to premature death. Researchers discovered that for each additional year of education, there was an average 2% reduction in the risk of death. This implies a 13% lower risk of death for those completing six years of elementary school. Achieving a high school education is correlated with a nearly 25% drop in the risk of death, while obtaining a Master’s degree further decreases the risk by 34%.
Mirza Balaj, a postdoctoral fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and one of the study’s co-lead authors, underscored the multifaceted benefits of education. Beyond the economic advantages, higher education provides improved employment prospects, heightened income, better access to healthcare, and an enhanced ability to manage one’s own health. Additionally, individuals with higher education levels tend to develop a more extensive set of social and psychological resources that contribute to both their overall health and longevity.
The study, analyzing data from 59 countries drawn from over 600 previously published studies, compared the impact of education on longevity to other lifestyle factors such as diet, smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption. Strikingly, the benefits of 18 years of education, equivalent to a Master’s degree, were likened to the advantages of consistently consuming the optimal amount of vegetables.
Significantly, the study revealed that while the benefits of education are most pronounced for young people, they extend to those over 50 and even 70. Furthermore, the positive effects of education were consistent across both affluent and economically disadvantaged countries, underscoring the global importance of promoting education, particularly in developing nations.
Claire Henson, co-lead author from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, emphasized the crucial role of education in breaking the cycle of poverty and preventable deaths. The study’s findings underscore the imperative for global initiatives aimed at closing the education gap as a means of reducing disparities in mortality and enhancing population health on a worldwide scale.
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