Dr. Robert Hummer: Educational Attainment and Widening Adult Mortality Disparities in the United States

Demographers have shown for many years that educational attainment is related to adult mortality disparities in the United States; that is, persons with high education live longer than persons with less education. But in a rapidly changing society in which individuals are increasingly dependent upon their educational attainment for labor market success and access to valued information, is educational attainment becoming even more important with regard to how long we live and when we die? And just how is educational attainment now related to U.S. adult mortality? This presentation focuses on recent work by Robert Hummer and his colleagues that investigates these questions using the most recent data and advanced statistical methodologies available. The results that will be presented show that educational attainment is indeed becoming more and more important in differentiating U.S. adult mortality patterns and is doing so on a cohort, rather than on a period, basis. Such results are consistent with both Link and Phelan’s fundamental cause theory as well as with a cohort-based life course perspective on health and mortality. Moreover, the relationship between educational attainment and adult mortality risk is neither truly linear or credential-based, but is a combination of those patterns. Public health and social Implications of these widening disparities and patterns will be discussed.