'Higher education may help you live longer

Updated on: Tuesday, March 01, 2011

The more advanced degrees you have, the higher your chances of living longer, according to a new study.

The study by researchers at the Brown University in the US found that people who went to college or university had lower blood pressure as they aged than their counterparts who did not finish high school.

And the biggest health benefits were found among those with master's degrees or doctorates, and were stronger for women, the Daily Mail reported.

With high blood pressure doubling the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke, the findings suggested that a good education could save your life, it said.

For the study, the researchers tracked the health of nearly 4,000 American men and women for 30 years.

It was found that women with 17 years or more of education -- a master's degree or doctorate -- had systolic blood pressure readings 3.26 millimetres of mercury lower than female high school drop-outs.

And men who completed their graduations had systolic blood pressure readings that were 2.26 millimetres of mercury (mmHg) lower than their counterparts who did not finish high school, found the study.

The findings, published online in the journal BMC Public Health, also showed that highly educated men tend to be thinner and smoked and drank less than those without further education.

Well-educated women also smoked less and were thinner, but drank more than those who did not go to college or university.

The jobs taken by school drop-outs also appeared to have an impact on their health, said Eric Loucks, who led the study.

Loucks said: "Low educational attainment has been demonstrated to predispose individuals to high strain jobs, characterised by high levels of demand and low levels of control, which have been associated with elevated blood pressure."

The researchers aren't sure why women's blood pressure is particularly affected by education -- or the lack of it.

But it may be that lack of education affects a woman's lifestyle, and so her physical health, more than a man's, they said.

Dr Loucks said, "Women with less education are more likely to be experiencing depression, they are more likely to be single parents, more likely to be living in impoverished areas and more likely to be living below the poverty line.

"Socio-economic gradients in health are very complex. But thereâ€™s a questions of what do we do about it. One of the big potential areas to intervene on is education."

Past studies have already linked education with warding off Alzheimer's.

'Higher education may help you live longer

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