Health and education: egg or chicken?

Education = health + longevity

Mayte Rius, Educacion = salud + longevidad
"La Vanguardia", Spain, 14/09/2012
Translation: ИноСМИ.Ru"Each year of additional training increases life expectancy by one and a half years after reaching 35 years."

"Mortality among people with secondary education is 54% higher than among people with higher education." "Upon reaching the age of 25, people with completed higher education have a life expectancy seven years higher than those with secondary education." These are some of the conclusions reached by the authors of recent studies on the impact of education on human life.

Many researchers representing different fields of activity and different countries analyzed the impact of the level of education and came to the conclusion that there is a close connection between education and health. "There are huge differences in indicators such as life expectancy, mortality or depression among people with different levels of education," says Adriana Lleras–Muney, professor of economics at the University of California, who has conducted research on the relationship between people's health and their educational level in the United States and other countries of the American continent. Based on the conducted research, she came to the conclusion that "people with a higher level of education behave differently: they smoke less, drink alcohol in moderation, have a weight approaching ideal, visit doctors more regularly and generally have better health and live longer."

And this is observed not only on one side of the Atlantic. A few years ago, scientists from the Granada Institute published a report with the aim of redistributing medical care, which indicated that people with a lower educational level are less likely to visit doctors.

And the relationship between the duration of compulsory schooling and life expectancy, which was found by Lleras-Muney in the USA and the Dominican Republic, is also described in similar studies conducted in Sweden, Denmark, England and Wales.

Why? How does the duration of training affect life expectancy? Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center for the Study of Longevity, said that people with a higher level of education receive higher-paying positions that require less physical activity and give more pleasure. They live in safer areas, lead healthier lifestyles and are less stressed.

Javier Salinas, head of the Department of Economics and Finance at the Autonomous University of Madrid, who has researched the relationship between education and individual well-being, explains that the theory of human capital considers education as an investment in personal well-being, since it increases the chances in the labor market, to keep a job, to get a promotion and a salary increase. It also reduces the time spent on routine tasks and increases participation in making important decisions, having a positive impact on health.

Manuel Martin Loeches, head of the Cognitive Neuroscience Department at the UCM-ISC3 Center for the Study of Human Evolution and Behavior, considers the issue from a completely different point of view. He argues that in our civilization, people with education manage to achieve positive changes in social and biological terms, because education provides greater opportunities for solving life problems, better employment, greater income and a better social position. "All this is very important, because we are highly social beings, and if you have a good position in the group, then you will find yourself the best couple with good health, and this in turn will give abundant and healthy offspring."

Adriana Lleras-Muney believes that people with a higher educational level also have greater access to information and, as a result, are the first to learn about scientific innovations and medical recommendations. "They were the first to learn about the dangers of tobacco, as well as how important it is to fasten a seat belt in a car. In addition, they perceive information faster, it is easier for them to realize new trends and change their behavior, because they want to preserve their health and continue to enjoy the joys of life (active leisure, relationships with other people, etc.), which, in their opinion, are worth it," the researcher continues.

However, all these economic and social arguments that education makes us live longer and better seem to be losing credibility in the light of a study of longevity conducted by neurologist David Snowdon among a group of nuns. All of them entered the monastery at the age of about 20 and lived on the same means, in the same environment, with the same diet, the same daily duties, and used the same medications until the end of their days. Snowdon noted that the nuns who had a higher educational level when entering the monastery (the researcher formed his idea of this by knowledge of grammar, spelling, complexity of phrases they used when writing autobiographies when taking vows) lived better, longer and were less susceptible to Alzheimer's disease.

One of the explanations for these data is that people with a higher level of education keep the brain constantly active, renew their neurons and tolerate the aging process more easily. However, there are also those who explain this by the process of natural selection: it is not education that changes people, making them healthier and prolonging their lives, but those who are born smarter and healthier, eventually get a better education. So what was it at the beginning: an egg or a chicken?

Whatever the root cause, everyone recognizes the existence of an obvious link between the level of education, material well-being, mortality rate and the state of health of people. According to many researchers, this is where the direct relationship between the level of education and satisfaction – physical and mental, which is expressed by the formula "the higher the education, the greater the happiness." Some explain it by biological reactions of the body: when a person learns, he gets pleasure, because the learning process itself stimulates the production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that causes a feeling of pleasure and activates neurons, which, in turn, has a positive effect on the mental state. Some associate education with happiness, stating that learning is always a challenge, and overcoming difficulties is a stimulus that positively affects the human brain and causes a sense of satisfaction.

Based on his observations, Professor Lleras-Muney argues that people with a higher level of education have greater abilities to plan their future and manage their emotions, so that as a result they develop more successful and fulfilling relationships with others: the level of divorce and depressive moods among them is much lower, she notes, which in the end it can lead to an increase in their satisfaction level. "If more education is understood as the development of abilities and skills to solve problems, then surely in the long term it will mean more satisfaction, since these skills will effectively withstand unexpected life situations and the difficulties that reality puts before them," says Gabriela Topa, professor of social psychology and psychology organizations of the National University of Correspondence Education (UNED). But at the same time, she notes that we are not talking about a direct relationship – "education does not guarantee that anyone will be happy," but about an indirect one: "If you have more abilities and means, then you will be able to live life better in all its manifestations, including difficulties, illness and death."

Javier Salinas draws attention to the fact that the education-happiness ratio is not mechanical and does not always work. "Education expands the totality of benefits that a person can use, so the higher the educational level, the higher the ability to evaluate values, creative and stimulating activities, the higher the well-being. But the level of education has steadily increased after the Second World War, and despite this, people feel an increasingly high level of subjective well–being," the scientist believes. In his opinion, the explanation is that a higher educational level can give more opportunities, but at the same time it can also cause an increase in human demands and thus turn into a source of dissatisfaction. "If, due to higher education, you have inflated wishes in relation to your status, work and relationships with people around you, and these wishes are not fulfilled, then you will feel dissatisfaction. Accordingly, the happiness that education can give you will largely depend on the expectations that you place on the return from education," Salinas points out.

From the point of view of neuroscience, Manuel Martin Loaches explains that, although education provides better health, better well-being and provides more rational tools to be happy, at the same time it is not a guarantee of all this, because it is not able to change the natural evolutionary tendency of people, which is to be higher appreciate the negative rather than the positive. It is this trait that has ensured the survival of the human race for thousands of years.

Petra M. Perez Alonso-Geta, an anthropologist and head of the Department of Educational Theory at the University of Valencia, believes that from an anthropological point of view, a purely human distinctive feature is a universal and not clearly expressed desire for happiness. "A person wants to be happy, regardless of anything, and everyone believes that some thing will make him happy, but when he reaches it, it turns out that he no longer needs it, and he strives for another form of happiness. But the thing is that nothing can provide eternal happiness, only some individual moments of fullness of sensations and the flowering of strength. After all, happiness is a very personal feeling that you experience as your desires begin to correspond to the surrounding reality," he explains. As an example, the scientist cites the conviction of his students that they will be happy when they graduate and get a job. But then, after getting a job, they immediately start thinking that the job should have been different, and then they would be really happy, "because our desires are always ahead of reality." But even if finding happiness will depend solely on each individual person, Perez Alonso-Geta emphasizes that there are factors that help to achieve it, such as good health or education. "Education does not pursue happiness as the main goal, but it prepares you for life and helps you to go beyond everyday life, set goals for yourself and build the present for their fulfillment. And when you achieve these goals, you feel the fullness of sensations. Education helps you understand that happiness is a goal that does not depend on others. This is something that only you can experience and it is you who can outline the steps to achieve this goal. In addition, it gives you additional opportunities for aesthetic and intellectual enjoyment, causing positive feelings and contributing to general well–being," the researcher sums up.

Positional value Studies of the relationship between education and well-being conducted by Javier Salinas indicate that not everyone has equal educational opportunities: men and women have different opportunities, and people from different social strata.

"While education itself has a positive impact on the social status of women and their satisfaction with life, men rather view it as a tool and get satisfaction from education by improving their professional status and promotion at work," says the head of the Department of Economics and Finance at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

And he adds that the degree of satisfaction that education gives depends on the social environment in which a person lives. "Education is closely related to the understanding of happiness in less developed countries, while in countries with higher per capita income this relationship is not so pronounced or even has a negative character," Salinas notes. Because, as in the case of wealth, education is a positional value. Accordingly, in those countries where there are very few people with higher education, those who have it are in a privileged position in relation to the rest, which has a positive effect on their well-being and satisfaction. And in countries where many already have higher or secondary education, this circumstance does not so much affect their social status. "And in developed countries, the degree of satisfaction with education varies among people with low and medium or high incomes. There are more people with higher or secondary education in these countries, and this achievement is no longer valued so highly and does not have such a decisive significance," he adds.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru24.09.2012