TY - JOUR
T1 - Educational inequalities in health behaviors at midlife
T2 - Is there a role for early-life cognition?
AU - Clouston, Sean A.P.
AU - Richards, Marcus
AU - Cadar, Dorina
AU - Hofer, Scott M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge funding for the Integrative Analysis of Longitudinal Studies on Aging from the National Institute on Aging (P01 AG043362) and the U.K. Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12019/1, MC_UU_12019/4).
Publisher Copyright:
© American Sociological Association 2015.
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - Education is a fundamental cause of social inequalities in health because it influences the distribution of resources, including money, knowledge, power, prestige, and beneficial social connections, that can be used in situ to influence health. Recent studies have highlighted early-life cognition as commonly indicating the propensity for educational attainment and determining health and age of mortality. Health behaviors provide a plausible mechanism linking both education and cognition to later-life health and mortality. We examine the role of education and cognition in predicting smoking, heavy drinking, and physical inactivity at midlife using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (N = 10,317), National Survey of Health and Development (N = 5,362), and National Childhood Development Study (N = 16,782). Adolescent cognition was associated with education but was inconsistently associated with health behaviors. Education, however, was robustly associated with improved health behaviors after adjusting for cognition. Analyses highlight structural inequalities over individual capabilities when studying health behaviors.
AB - Education is a fundamental cause of social inequalities in health because it influences the distribution of resources, including money, knowledge, power, prestige, and beneficial social connections, that can be used in situ to influence health. Recent studies have highlighted early-life cognition as commonly indicating the propensity for educational attainment and determining health and age of mortality. Health behaviors provide a plausible mechanism linking both education and cognition to later-life health and mortality. We examine the role of education and cognition in predicting smoking, heavy drinking, and physical inactivity at midlife using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (N = 10,317), National Survey of Health and Development (N = 5,362), and National Childhood Development Study (N = 16,782). Adolescent cognition was associated with education but was inconsistently associated with health behaviors. Education, however, was robustly associated with improved health behaviors after adjusting for cognition. Analyses highlight structural inequalities over individual capabilities when studying health behaviors.
KW - Alcohol drinking
KW - Cognition
KW - Education
KW - Health behavior
KW - Life course analysis
KW - Physical exercise
KW - Smoking
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84939169577&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84939169577&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0022146515594188
DO - 10.1177/0022146515594188
M3 - Article
C2 - 26315501
AN - SCOPUS:84939169577
VL - 56
SP - 323
EP - 340
JO - Journal of Health and Social Behavior
JF - Journal of Health and Social Behavior
SN - 0022-1465
IS - 3
ER -