Does better education mitigate risky health behavior? : A mendelian randomization study
Viinikainen, J., Bryson, A., Böckerman, P., Kari, J. T., Lehtimäki, T., Raitakari, O., Viikari, J., & Pehkonen, J. (2022). Does better education mitigate risky health behavior? : A mendelian randomization study. Economics and Human Biology, 46, Article 101134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101134
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Economics and Human BiologyAuthors
Date
2022Discipline
Päätöksentekoa tukeva taloustiede ja talouden kilpailukyky (painoala)TaloustiedeEmpirical MicroeconomicsBasic or discovery scholarshipPolicy-Relevant Economics and Competitiveness of Economy (focus area)EconomicsEmpirical MicroeconomicsBasic or discovery scholarshipCopyright
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.
Education and risky health behaviors are strongly negatively correlated. Education may affect health behaviors by enabling healthier choices through higher disposable income, increasing information about the harmful effects of risky health behaviors, or altering time preferences. Alternatively, the observed negative correlation may stem from reverse causality or unobserved confounders. Based on the data from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study linked to register-based information on educational attainment and family background, this paper identifies the causal effect of education on risky health behaviors. To examine causal effects, we used a genetic score as an instrument for years of education. We found that individuals with higher education allocated more attention to healthy habits. In terms of health behaviors, highly educated people were less likely to smoke. Some model specifications also indicated that the highly educated consumed more fruit and vegetables, but the results were imprecise in this regard. No causal effect was found between education and abusive drinking. In brief, inference based on genetic instruments showed that higher education leads to better choices in some but not all dimensions of health behaviors.
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Additional information about funding
The Young Finns Study has been financially supported by the Academy of Finland: grant numbers 322098, 286284, 134309 (Eye), 126925, 121584, 124282, 129378 (Salve), 117787 (Gendi), 41071 (Skidi); the Social Insurance Institution of Finland; Competitive State Research Financing of the Expert Responsibility area of Kuopio; Tampere and Turku University Hospitals (grant number X51001); Juho Vainio Foundation; Paavo Nurmi Foundation; Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research; Finnish Cultural Foundation; the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, Finland; Tampere Tuberculosis Foundation, Finland; Emil Aaltonen Foundation; Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation; Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation; Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation; Diabetes Research Foundation of Finnish Diabetes Association; EU Horizon 2020, Belgium (grant number 755320 for TAX-INOMISIS); European Research Council, Belgium (grant number 742927 for MULTIEPIGEN project); Tampere University Hospital Supporting Foundation; and the Society of Finnish Clinical Chemistry. The use of the YFS-FLEED-LPC data has been supported by Palkansaajasäätiö and OP Group Research Foundation. ...License
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