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Comparative Study
. 2011 Nov;48(4):1347-75.
doi: 10.1007/s13524-011-0052-1.

Does more schooling reduce hospitalization and delay mortality? New evidence based on Danish twins

Jere R Behrman  1 , Hans-Peter Kohler, Vibeke Myrup Jensen, Dorthe Pedersen, Inge Petersen, Paul Bingley, Kaare Christensen
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Does more schooling reduce hospitalization and delay mortality? New evidence based on Danish twins

Jere R Behrman et al. Demography. 2011 Nov.

Abstract

Schooling generally is positively associated with better health-related outcomes-for example, less hospitalization and later mortality-but these associations do not measure whether schooling causes better health-related outcomes. Schooling may in part be a proxy for unobserved endowments-including family background and genetics-that both are correlated with schooling and have direct causal effects on these outcomes. This study addresses the schooling-health-gradient issue with twins methodology, using rich data from the Danish Twin Registry linked to population-based registries to minimize random and systematic measurement error biases. We find strong, significantly negative associations between schooling and hospitalization and mortality, but generally no causal effects of schooling.

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