ArticleJournal of health and social behavior2017
Why Do College Graduates Behave More Healthfully than Those Who Are Less Educated?
Article in Journal of health and social behavior, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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
85 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Diminished Returns of Higher Parental Education on Cognition for Black Adults in Middle and Later Life.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Independent Associations of Education, Intelligence, and Cognition With Hypertension and the Mediating Effects of Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Mendelian Randomization Study.Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979) · 2023Pooled it
- The Effects of Theory-Based Educational Intervention and WhatsApp Follow-up on Papanicolaou Smear Uptake Among Postnatal Women in Malaysia: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2022Trial
- Interaction of FXTAS Family History and College Degree Attainment Predicts Trajectories of Cognitive and Motor Symptoms in FMR1 Premutation Carrier Women.American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics · 2026Article
- Diminished returns to Black health: A Canadian problem?Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- Firearm exposure and threats among young adults in Texas: Identifying high-risk groups for prevention.Preventive medicine reports · 2026Article
- Association between cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome stages and risk of all-cause mortality in U.S. adults: a cross-sectional survey based on NHANES.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2026Article
- Educational attainment, body mass index, and smoking as mediators in kidney disease risk: a two-step Mendelian randomization study.Renal failure · 2025Article
- Education, Religious Attendance, and Precursors to Deaths of Despair in the United States.Journal of religion and health · 2025Article
- Is 6 Weeks Postpartum Too Late for Contraceptive Counseling in the U.S.? A Look into the Timing of Postpartum Intercourse.Journal of sex research · 2025Article
- Interrogating Theories and Mechanisms Underlying Educational Inequities in Diet Quality.The Journal of nutrition · 2025Review
- High School Curricular Rigor and Cognitive Function among White Older Adults.Journal of health and social behavior · 2025Article
- Lessons Learned in Digital Health Promotion: The Promise and Challenge of Contextual Behavioral Science Methodology in Valuing Intervention Research.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Causal association of modifiable factors with cardiometabolic multimorbidity: an exposome-wide Mendelian randomization investigation.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2025Observational
- Association of daily steps over time with adult asthma incidence.The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology · 2025Article
- Exploring public perceptions of college education on TikTok: A content analysis through the lens of the social determinants of health.Dialogues in health · 2025Article
- Smoking and asthma mediate the protective effect of educational attainment on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk: a mediation Mendelian randomization analysis.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2025Article
- Association between non-skimmed milk consumption and metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease in US adults: insights from NHANES data.BMC gastroenterology · 2025Article
- Diverging cognitive benefits from education between rural and urban middle-aged and older adults in the USA.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- Do mothers' socioeconomic factors affect children's sodium and potassium intake?Hypertension research : official journal of the Japanese Society of Hypertension · 2025Article
25 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
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
College graduates live much healthier lives than those with less education, but research has yet to document with certainty the sources of this disparity. This study examines why U.S. young adults who earn college degrees exhibit healthier behavior than those with less education. I use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), which offers information on education and health behaviors across adolescence and young adulthood (N=14,265). Accounting for selection into college degree attainment substantially reduces the associations between college degree attainment and health behavior, but college degree attainment demonstrates a strong causal effect on young adult health. Financial, occupational, social, cognitive, and psychological resources explain less than half of the association between college degree attainment and health behavior. The healthier behaviors of college graduates are the result of sorting into educational attainment, embedding of human capital, and mechanisms other than socioeconomic and psychosocial resources.
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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.