A new study from the University of Colorado indicates that people who leave school without minimum qualifications are at greater risk of poor health, more likely to have exhausting manual work and even suffer from mental illnesses .
The research team studied US population data dating back to 1925 to determine the impact of the level of education on the death rate. They published the results in the journal PLOS ONE.
The study showed that more than 145,000 deaths could have been prevented in 2010 if adults who had not finished college had earned their basic qualifications, a death rate comparable to that of smoking.
Researchers find that a lack of education could lead to poorer management of health problems, poor housing and working conditions that have an impact on an individual’s immune system and cardiovascular health.
Study co-author Patrick Krueger, a professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, explains, “Our findings show that policies that seek to improve educational attainment could also improve the health system of the American population, especially when consideration is given to the aggravation of inequalities in education. If these trends do not change, the mortality rate attributable to a lack of education will continue to increase in the future. »
