Relationship between educational attainment, lifestyle risk factors and all-cause mortality has been revealed by a study published in the JAMA Health Forum.
The study team assessed 415,764 U.S. adults aged 25 to 84 years from the 1997 to 2014 National Health Interview Survey to establish the link between socioeconomic status (SES due to exposure to unhealthy lifestyle factors) and mortality.
‘Lower socioeconomic (SES) groups with an unhealthy lifestyle like smoking, physical inactivity, and alcohol use, are found to be associated with an increased risk of mortality.’
The participants were followed up till December 31, 2015, followed by data analysis from May 1 to October 31, 2021.
It was found that lifestyle factors contributed to 66% (men) and 80% (women) of the association between educational attainment and all-cause mortality. Clustering of unhealthy lifestyle factors was among the main reasons for inequalities in mortality.
The study thereby states that discrepancy in exposure to lifestyle risk factors was a significant arbitrator of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality, thereby mandating the need for public health interventions.
Source: Medindia
