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Does more education cause lower BMI, or do lower-BMI individuals become more educated? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979

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  • Benson, Rebecca
  • von Hippel, Paul T.
  • Lynch, Jamie L.

Abstract

More educated adults have lower average body mass index (BMI). This may be due to selection, if adolescents with lower BMI attain higher levels of education, or it may be due to causation, if higher educational attainment reduces BMI gain in adulthood. We test for selection and causation in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, which has followed a representative US cohort from age 14–22 in 1979 through age 47–55 in 2012. Using ordinal logistic regression, we test the selection hypothesis that overweight and obese adolescents were less likely to earn high school diplomas and bachelor's degrees. Then, controlling for selection with individual fixed effects, we estimate the causal effect of degree completion on BMI and obesity status. Among 18-year-old women, but not among men, being overweight or obese predicts lower odds of attaining higher levels of education. At age 47–48, higher education is associated with lower BMI, but 70–90% of the association is due to selection. Net of selection, a bachelor's degree predicts less than a 1 kg reduction in body weight, and a high school credential does not reduce BMI.

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  • Benson, Rebecca & von Hippel, Paul T. & Lynch, Jamie L., 2018. "Does more education cause lower BMI, or do lower-BMI individuals become more educated? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 370-377.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:211:y:2018:i:c:p:370-377
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.042
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    2. Diaz-Serrano, Luis & Stoyanova, Alexandrina P., 2020. "Is There a Link between BMI and Adolescents' Educational Choices and Expectations?," IZA Discussion Papers 13685, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Adriana Barone & Cristian Barra, 2022. "Gender differences in weight status and early school leaving in Italy," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 644-666, June.
    4. Liza Darrous & Ninon Mounier & Zoltán Kutalik, 2021. "Simultaneous estimation of bi-directional causal effects and heritable confounding from GWAS summary statistics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Diaz Serrano, Lluís & Stoyanova, Alexandrina Petrova, 2020. "Is there a Link between BMI and Adolescents’ Educational Choices and Expectations?," Working Papers 2072/417676, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    6. Janne Mikkonen & Hanna Remes & Heta Moustgaard & Pekka Martikainen, 2020. "Evaluating the Role of Parental Education and Adolescent Health Problems in Educational Attainment," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2245-2267, December.

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    Keywords

    BMI; Education; Obesity; Selection;
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