Staying in school longer leads to better health

Educated people are generally healthier, have fewer comorbidities and live longer than people with less education. Much of the evidence about the effects of education comes from observational studies, which can be affected by residual confounding. Natural experiments, such as laws that increase the minimum school leaving age, are a potentially more robust source of evidence about the causal effects of education. Previous studies have exploited this natural experiment using population-level administrative data to investigate mortality, and surveys to investigate the effect on morbidity.

This study adds to the evidence using data from a large sample from the UK Biobank, using the raising of the minimum school leaving age in the UK in September 1972 as a natural experiment.

The researchers found consistent evidence that remaining in school causally reduced the risk of diabetes and mortality in all specifications.

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