ArticleDemography2012
Educational attainment and adult mortality in the United States: a systematic analysis of functional form.
Article in Demography, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 113 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
113 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Academic Performance of Children With Sickle Cell Disease in the United States: A Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2021Pooled it
- Increasing educational attainment and mortality reduction: a systematic review and taxonomy.BMC public health · 2017Pooled it
- Out-of-School-Time Academic Programs to Improve School Achievement: A Community Guide Health Equity Systematic Review.Journal of public health management and practice : JPHMPPooled it
- Parental education and children's old-age mortality: Evidence using college expansions.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2026Article
- Public Policies in Historical Context and the Association Between Education and US Older Adults' Health.The Milbank quarterly · 2026Article
- Structured Inequality, Uncertain Lifespans: Demographic Perspectives on Predicting Individual-Level Longevity.Population and development review · 2026Article
- Diminishing Returns Among Black Patients With Cancer: The Intersection of Race and Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2026Article
- Association and mediating pathways between intergenerational educational mobility and depressive symptoms: findings from high- and middle-income countries.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Observational
- High School Curricular Rigor and Cognitive Function among White Older Adults.Journal of health and social behavior · 2025Article
- Article
- Differential associations between education and blood pressure by gender and race.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages? Causal Evidence From Nonparametric Bounds.Demography · 2025Article
- Air pollution and life expectancy: the role of education and health expenditure in China.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Solid fuel use, socioeconomic status and depression: a cross-study of older adults in China.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Article
- Smoking and BMI mediate the causal effect of education on lower back pain: observational and Mendelian randomization analyses.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Observational
- Self-Rated Health and Mortality: Moderation by Purpose in Life.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Low educational attainment is associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the United States adult population.BMC public health · 2023Article
53 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A vast literature has documented the inverse association between educational attainment and U.S. adult mortality risk but given little attention to identifying the optimal functional form of the association. A theoretical explanation of the association hinges on our ability to describe it empirically. Using the 1979-1998 National Longitudinal Mortality Study for non-Hispanic white and black adults aged 25-100 years during the mortality follow-up period (N = 1,008,215), we evaluated 13 functional forms across race-gender-age subgroups to determine which form(s) best captured the association. Results revealed that the preferred functional form includes a linear decline in mortality risk from 0 to 11 years of education, followed by a step-change reduction in mortality risk upon attainment of a high school diploma, at which point mortality risk resumes a linear decline but with a steeper slope than that prior to a high school diploma. The findings provide important clues for theoretical development of explanatory mechanisms: an explanation for the selected functional form may require integrating a credentialist perspective to explain the step-change reduction in mortality risk upon attainment of a high school diploma, with a human capital perspective to explain the linear declines before and after a high school diploma.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.