Sunday, September 22, 2013

Education and Life Expectancy at Very Old Age

Even at the oldest ages, better educated people live longer. This is the finding of a study published in Demographic Research. In an examination of life expectancy at the advanced ages of 95 and 100, researchers found longer life among more highly educated men and women—although not much longer.

Among women aged 95, those with the highest level of education had a life expectancy of 4.39 years compared with 4.20 years for those with the lowest level of education. This translates into 69 more days of life for the educated women. At age 100, better educated women had 24 more days of life than those with the least education. The pattern was the same among men.

Source: Demographic Research, "Minor Gradient in Mortality by Education at the Highest Ages: An Application of the Extinct-Cohort Method," Roland Rau, Magdalena M. Muszynska, and Paul H.C. Eilers

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