Does more education cause lower BMI, or do lower-BMI individuals become more educated? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4589090 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rebecca Benson (0000-0002-8525-643X, University College London, corresponding author), Paul T Von Hippel (0000-0003-4498-4374, The University of Texas at Austin), Jamie L Lynch (0000-0001-5119-2709, St. Norbert College) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 211 |
| Pages | 370-377 |
| Publication date | 2018-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Science & Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.042 |
| PMID | 28366246 |
| OpenAlex | W2597777315 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 42 |
More educated adults have lower average body mass index (BMI). This may be due to selection, if adolescents with lower BMI attain higher levels of education, or it may be due to causation, if higher educational attainment reduces BMI gain in adulthood. We test for selection and causation in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, which has followed a representative US cohort from age 14-22 in 1979 through age 47-55 in 2012. Using ordinal logistic regression, we test the selection hypothesis that overweight and obese adolescents were less likely to earn high school diplomas and bachelor's degrees. Then, controlling for selection with individual fixed effects, we estimate the causal effect of degree completion on BMI and obesity status. Among 18-year-old women, but not among men, being overweight or obese predicts lower odds of attaining higher levels of education. At age 47-48, higher education is associated with lower BMI, but 70-90% of the association is due to selection. Net of selection, a bachelor's degree predicts less than a 1 kg reduction in body weight, and a high school credential does not reduce BMI
Body mass index · Cohort · Educational attainment · Logistic regression · National Longitudinal Surveys · Obesity · Odds · Overweight · Selection bias · Statistics · Underweight · Demography · Health disparities and outcomes · Medicine · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet · Retirement, Disability, and Employment · Gerontology
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| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |