Associations of Educational Attainment With Disability and Life Expectancy by Race and Gender in the United States

Abstract

Objective: This study provides estimates of associations of education with life expectancy and the percentage of remaining life from age 40 with disability. Method: We used the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1999-2011 (n = 8,763; 94,246 person-years), measuring five education levels. We estimated probabilities of disability and death with multinomial logistic Markov models, and used microsimulations beginning at age 40, controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, age, and disability. Results: With college education, African American and White women, and African American and White men, respectively, lived 46.6%, 44.0%, 55.2%, and 50.4% more years from age 40 than those educated at less than the ninth grade (p < .001). Corresponding percentages of life with disability were lower with high education, by 37.9%, 38.9%, 41.0%, and 39.9% (p < .001). There was little evidence of outcome differences between African Americans and Whites within education levels. Discussion: Low education is associated with shorter lives with much more disability.